Frail Humanity
by drewmaster
Summary: Sometimes in life, we have to ask ourselves "Are we really as strong as we think we are?," "What is truly worth fighting for?," and "Who are we really, deep down?"
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: As it was the last time I uploaded this story, I do not own My Life as a Teenage Robot. I also do not own any of it's official characters. However, any characters that appear in this story that are not in the show are mine.

I've finally decided it's time to repost this story. I apologize to any of the fans of this story that I've disappointed.

Enjoy.

* * *

Today, Jenny was the first student in class. Normally, she'd be in the halls amongst the other students trying new ways to fit in. Today was different. Today, she just didn't feel like it.

It would be another 10 minutes or so until the next student arrived in the classroom. The teacher was already there sorting through several documents in one of his briefcases. He paused to see that Jenny was staring blankly at her desk motionless. The only thing that broke through the almost complete silence was the sound of the robot girl's internal motors. Yes, it was otherwise just that quite in the room.

"Ms. Wakeman," Mr. Tier called.

Her head rose quickly and eyes opened wide to make contact with his. "Yes, Mr. Tier."

"You don't seem to be your usual…at least somewhat cheery self today. Is there anything that you want to discuss?" Mr. Tier asked.

Jenny cleared some excess static from her speaker and said "I just…have you ever felt like no matter how hard you try to accomplish a goal, you really can't, and then you feel that maybe it just wasn't meant to be?"

Mr. Tier stared at her for a few moments. He noticed how odd it was that she didn't have a smile on her face as she usually would when she talked to him. She usually did so, because out of the many faculty that were employed at Tremorton High, he was one of the few that showed her sincere respect. This time was different. He knew something had to be terribly wrong, and he was pretty sure he knew what that something was.

"You mean like this teaching job?" He responded.

"Huh?" She asked puzzled.

"My goal wasn't simply to become a teacher. I was hoping to really be able to shape young minds into intelligent individuals that could one day take care of themselves properly and possibly help others. Twenty two years of this and only about thirty-five percent actually did something worthwhile with their lives. You probably don't have a clue as to how disappointed I am with these dismal results. It's truly appalling how quickly the ignorance rate is rising in the United States. But enough of that, I know your trying very hard to fit in with your peers. I know that, after all this time, you've failed miserably to gain their approval," He responded.

"Yeah…and miserably is a huge understatement," She said still frowning.

"Listen Jennifer, I don't mean any harm by saying this; but I'm really convinced at this point that what you've been trying to accomplish is at least almost impossible," He said.

"I'm slowly getting used to that reality myself. But why, why do you think they reject me the way they do?" She asked.

"What you're asking for is a general human's point of view, correct?" He asked.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm asking," She responded.

"I'll be as straight with you as I can be. The majority of the problem comes from a little something called a superiority complex. Throughout childhood, we are usually taught that since we are the most intelligent creatures on the planet, that that automatically makes us superior to any other form of life. Most of us grow quite comfortable believing that. Most of us feel secure in the idea that we have this so-called right to do whatever we want and that we should never have to suffer the consequences of our actions. On the other hand, we generally don't have a problem with following rules, as long as these rules were made by humans. We don't usually think about that concept quite that directly, but that's what a lot of your problem boils down to. When you came along, people started feeling that on top of all the things that could go wrong in their lives, they now have to deal with competition. If you think I'm trying to pull your leg, put yourself in our shoes. If you belonged to an entire race of robots that lived pretty much the way we do, and humans were as rare as an intelligent robot such as yourself is, and all of a sudden a human started demanding the same rights and respect as all of the other robots, what do you think would happen? How would you feel about that? If I recall correctly, Cluster Prime still holds many humans captive as slaves. They don't have the same rights and respect that we have here. I understand that under the new queen's leadership, the ones that are still held prisoner are only still there because they are serving out sentences because of whatever crime they committed. That's not the way it was when Vexus was in power though. Now that humans are being released from captivity, robots on that planet now have to do more work than before. How do you think a lot of them feel about that? My point is, that they are simply not used to you yet. When it comes right down to it, you're kind of asking for too much. I know that you want quick results, but there is a balance problem. Humans generally aren't used to having a robot living along side them that doesn't exist primarily to obey commands. It sounds pretty harsh, but that's the way it is for the most part," He explained.

"I kinda figured that. I just don't want to believe it though. I'm surprised that you cared enough to learn anything about Cluster Prime. Most people don't," Jenny said.

"Grades aren't the only things I discuss with your mother. Believe it or not, she used to do substitute teaching at the college I attended and she did a very excellent job at it. Strict she was, but that didn't bother me much because my father was much worse. That's what a lot of these kids need these days, stricter parents," He said.

"I knew my mom did substitute teaching, but I never knew she taught you," She said surprised.

"That's the first time this morning I've seen you without a frown on your face," He said.

"Well, harsh as your explanation was, it did manage to kind of put my mind at ease. You're the first person to ever give me that straight an answer. My mom isn't even that straight with me. She still talks to me as if I'm a baby or something…as if I'm XJ1," She said.

"Yes, one of these days I do want to see your sisters. But we'll have to discuss this later, I still have a few folders to sort through, and someone is approaching the classroom," He said as he continued his usual morning task.

Jenny increased her hearing capability to listen for footsteps. Sure enough, someone was approaching the classroom.

"_I guess that just goes to show you that experience often wins over ability_," She thought to herself.

She decided to at least try to seem happy despite how miserable she was. So she then put on a false smile and awaited her fellow classmates.


	2. Chapter 2

The Krust cousins, Brittany and Tiffany, are usually the last to enter the classroom, and today was no different. They were rarely actually late for class, but when they were, they usually like to call it being "fashionably late." Of course, most people realized exactly how corny that sounded.

"_I can't believe I used to want to be their friends_," Jenny thought to herself as the cousins made their way to their seats.

The false smile was even harder to keep up whenever she saw them. Out of everyone in the entire school who made fun of her, those two filled her with the most rage and hatred. She knew it was bad and unhealthy to let those emotions take over too often, but how could she not when they insult her so badly on such a regular basis.

Lately however, they kept their insults to a minimum. Jenny had a strong feeling that it was only a matter of time until they returned to their usual abusive behavior.

Today, Jenny thought she'd just try extra hard to ignore them. She looked towards the front of the classroom, since they sat behind her, to avoid eye contact. Even if it worked out well, it was still going to be a long class period as usual. Though Mr. Tier was usually nice to her, he had a teaching style that could probably "bore a statue to tears;" which was the expression she'd use sometimes. Then again, it was probably all in her mind. One refreshing thing about it all was that she only had one class with the Krust cousins. However, she still had to endure meeting them in the halls and at lunch period.

About half way through the class period, one of the school secretaries activated the intercom.

"Mr. Tier," the woman said.

"Yes, I'm here," Mr. Tier answered.

"We need you to report to the Principal's office. We will try to make this as brief as possible," the woman said.

"Okay then. I'll be there shortly," Mr. Tier answered.

"You all know the rules," Mr. Tier said as the intercom was deactivated, "Detention for everyone in here if you disturb the other classes while I'm gone."

And with that said, he left the classroom.

"So, you guys think we're getting a new student or something?" one of the boys asked.

"What exactly would make you guess that specifically?" one of the girls asked.

"Well, it's true that we haven't had a new student for a while. There is the matter of that one empty seat to the left of XJ9, next to the wall, that no one has filled yet," Brit said.

Whereas most of the other students have at least started calling XJ9 Jenny or Jennifer, Brit and Tiff still insist on calling her by her model name most of the time to further emphasize the fact that she is a thing and not a person. Jenny didn't pay it much attention this time.

"I'm sure somebody in here needs some extra cash anyway, so why don't we bet on whether or not we are having a new student," Tiff announced.

Brit, and most of the students including Jenny, gave her an odd look.

"Don't get me wrong. I could care less whether you win the five bucks or however much we decide to wager. I'm only doin' this cuz it's boring in here. Gotta do somethin' to make this class a little more interesting," Tiff explained.

"Wow Tiff, you must be really bored to come up with that idea. But whatever, it is boring in here. How does her five dollar suggestion sound to you all?" Brit asked.

Some of the students betted against the idea that they were getting a new student, and some were for it. There were a few who didn't care enough to bet at all. Since Jenny's mom pretty much watches her every move, she wouldn't be crazy enough to gamble since it is a violation of the school rules. She just pretended to be one of the students who didn't care enough to gamble.

About fifteen minutes later, Mr. Tier returned to class with a piece of paper in his hand. Just when some of the students who betted for the idea of having a new student thought they had lost their five dollars, Mr. Tier had a little announcement to make.

"Class, today a new student will be joining our class," Mr. Tier said.

He noticed for a second that a lot of frowns and a lot of smiles came from the class all at once.

"I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that you all gambled to see whether or not we were having a new student. I've done that before myself when I was your age. If you did, keep that money in your pockets until you've escaped my site, or there will be consequences. Now as for this piece of paper in my hand, it basically says that our new student is a special case. To be blunt, this kind of student would normally be in a special education class. However, she insisted she be given a chance to see how well she can function in a normal class setting without special attention," Mr. Tier explained.

"What exactly is her ailment?" one of the students asked.

"Basically…she…how should I say this? Most of the time, she seems to be off in her own world, like she spends most of her time in a daydream. In this case, it's actually noticeable to other people since she will mumble to herself very quietly sometimes. She's learned to keep it at a minimum when appropriate. It's rare that she'll have any real outbursts of any kind, so chances are we won't have to deal with that kind of problem. Also, she normally talks slowly as she often has a difficult time forming proper words in her mouth. She has proven that she can function pretty much normally, though she may need help sometimes. Some of you are probably not comfortable with this idea, but it has been decided that it wouldn't be fair to give Ms. Wakeman a chance, and not offer that kind of treatment to a person like her. Oh, and one other thing, never let me catch any of you picking on her for I know of ways to make you feel even worse and not be jeopardizing my job. Do I make myself clear?" Mr. Tier asked.

"Yes, Mr. Tier," the class said in unison, some unenthusiastically.

"I told you all this before she came in to spare her all of this…unpleasantness, if that's what you want to call it," Mr. Tier explained.

A moment later, there was a knock on the door, and the teacher opened it. The suspense in the air was so thick, you could probably smell it. They were all anxious to see what their new classmate looked like. Mr. Tier stepped out of the room for a minute to talk to the new girl's escort. When her escort finally left, Mr. Tier re-entered the classroom first, followed by the new girl.

There were many different expressions on everyone's faces when they saw her. She stood at a height of five feet, seven inches. She had a slightly pale skin complexion. Her hair's length stopped about an inch below the base of her spine and a small portion of it rested on the front of her shoulders. Her hair was also an almost dark brown and was naturally somewhat bushy. Her eyes were a very light brown that looked almost yellow. Her dress looked a little old fashioned. It was white with many small maroon spots all over it. She had an expression on her face indicating that she was not in a particularly good mood, a little nervous, and the fact that she was somewhat mentally unstable was obvious. Her eyes were noticeably opened wider than most other people. She also had an almost invisible scar around her left thumb indicating that it was possibly cut off at some point and reattached. She was pretty skinny but not quite anorexic. Her shoes were also white. Her appearance overall looked sort of like she came out of an old story book.

The new girl glanced at each of the students in the class, and then paused when she saw Jenny. She looked even more surprised than most people do when they see Jenny for the first time.

"Don't worry about her," one of the students said, "She is exactly as she appears, a robot. She won't hurt you or anything. So do you have a name?"

After a moment with no response, the new girl finally said "Oh…I'm…sorry that I…didn't answer…sooner. Grace…my name is…Grace…Harnell," she said with a kind of low voiced, slight New York accent.

"_She doesn't seem very __**graceful**__ at all, and she dresses sort of like my grandmother. A complete fashion disaster_," Brit thought to herself.

"_I've known you long enough to know exactly what you're thinking girlfriend_," Tiff thought to herself.

"_With those grins, they must be up to no good. I can't let them mess with her_," Jenny thought to herself.

"Now that we've taken care of the introduction, please take your seat over there Ms. Harnell," Mr. Tier said.

She looked at Mr. Tier for a couple of seconds then nodded. She walked a little slowly and a little sloppily, but she managed to make it to her seat beside Jenny on her own.

"We only have 20 minutes left in here, so you all could at least act like you're interested in your futures for that long? Now, where were we? Oh yes, what would happen if the human body didn't produce its natural endorphins?" Mr. Tier asked.

"Many…of the body's natural…natural functions…would be painful," Grace answered immediately.

She received another awkward glance from the class.

"I didn't expect anyone to answer so quickly. Good job. That's _one_ of the things that would happen," Mr. Tier said.

He continued with the lesson until the end of class. Grace managed to answer most of the questions correctly. Some of the students were already jealous of her and started to resent her because of it.


	3. Chapter 3

Later that day, during lunch period, Jenny was sitting with one of her only real friends, Brad. Jenny was enjoying her usual oil in a can while Brad was talking about how annoying his little brother Tuck is.

"But enough about my little bro, I heard you gotta new student in your first period class today," Brad said.

"Yeah, we did get a new student. I'm worried about her though. She seems barely able to take care of herself," Jenny said.

"Why? What's wrong with her?" Brad asked.

Jenny pointed her left index finger as she was finishing the remaining oil in the can and then said "Why don't you look and see for yourself?"

Brad looked in the direction she was pointing to see Grace walking through the cafeteria's main entrance. His eyes opened wide with surprise when he saw her. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. This odd, skinny girl, who had trouble walking correctly, who looked like she was borderline insane, who stood out so much that she caused him not to be aware of anything else that was going on for a few moments. The whole situation seemed kind of unrealistic. She seemed out of place.

He observed her movements as she made her way to the back of the line to get her lunch.

"Brad. Brad. BRAD," Jenny yelled as she finally got his attention.

"Oh, so that's the new girl? Wow, I see now why you said she seems barely able to take care of herself. No offense, but she looks like a mental patient. They're letting her take regular classes?" he asked.

"Next time try not to be so loud when you use that mental patient comment. Somebody could have heard you," Jenny said.

"Oh, sorry." Brad said.

"Yes, that's the new girl. Her name is Grace," Jenny said.

"Grace huh? Well, what's her last name?" Brad asked.

"Harnell." Jenny answered.

"Harnell. Harnell. Where have I heard that name before? Man, it's right on the tip of my tongue. Why can't I remember? Anyway, I'm sure it'll come to me later. Right now, I just hope the Krust's don't give her a hard time," Brad said.

"That's exactly one of the things I've been worried about ever since I first saw her," Jenny said.

A moment later, it started getting a little quieter in the room as more and more people started noticing Grace.

She sat down at an empty table. She apparently already understood that she'll most likely be treated as an outcast anyway. She had some trouble opening her milk carton. When she finally got it open, she drank a few swallows and sat the carton back down on the table. Her hand was shaking a little bit as she sat it down.

"Hey Brit, there's the new kid," Tiff said as they entered the cafeteria.

"Oh yes, there she is. I used to think XJ9's clothes were out of style, but her clothes were out of style when my grandmother was in her prime," Brit said grinning.

Inevitably, the other students started laughing. At this point, Jenny was trying very intensely not to intervene. Her sight was locked onto the Krust's just waiting for them to take it too far. The expression on her face didn't reveal her anger, but her right hand did. Brad was now staring at Jenny's twitching fingers that had already made small dents in the metal can she was holding.

"_I have a feeling this isn't going to end well_," Brad thought to himself.

The entire cafeteria went silent as everyone noticed that Grace was staring straight forward and mumbling to herself. No one could actually hear what she was saying, but they could hear her saying something. Everyone stared at her for a minute. Before anyone had a chance to say anything, the silence was broken by a loud obnoxious "WHAT UP, BIZNATCHES?!"

Groans could be heard all over the cafeteria as they realized who just broke the silence so rudely. It was none other than Jason, the only other wigger in school besides Tiff. He wasn't nearly as much of a wigger as Tiff was, but whenever he showed that side of himself, it was usually some loud obnoxious comment. He was a dirty blond and about an inch and a half shorter than Grace. He was pretty much average looking and obviously not very popular. He never cared much for popularity anyway.

"Every time you come in here, it's same crap from you. What up, biznatches, or some other lame ass comment. What the hell is wrong with you?" a short red head girl named Pteresa said.

"I happened to hear how quiet it was in here, so I decided to liven up the party a little. So, what's going on in here anyway?" he asked with a grin.

"First of all, you knew very well there was no party. Even if there was, you definitely wouldn't be invited. Why don't you go and get lost somewhere, you annoying insect," Pteresa responded.

"Insect," Grace said.

Everyone could here that out of everything else she said. Everyone, including Jason turned to see what she was doing. Jason was the first person to look at her with a smile the first time and not the usual shocked expression. No one actually noticed his brief smile as they observed Grace's continued mumbling.

"She's been like that for a couple of minutes now. It's starting to get a little creepy," One guy said.

"So, she must be the new girl I heard about. Does she have a name?" Jason asked.

"Her name is Grace," Jenny answered.

"Grace huh? I bet y'all think she's weird. If that's the case, she'll fit right in then," Jason said as he start walking in a strut over to the food line to get a plate knowing very well that some people would take that comment offensively. The strut was primarily to try to rub his comment in.

"That Jason is a real freak," Tiff said.

"Why, because he actually stands up for people?" Jenny whispered.

"What was that?" Brit said grinning.

"Nothing," Jenny responded with a frown as she crushed the can in her hand, extended her arm to the opening of the nearest trash can and dropped the crushed can.

As her arm retracted, Brit said "And speaking of freaks…"

Jenny cut her off by yelling "I'M REALLY NOT IN THE MOOD FOR THAT CRAP TODAY, BRIT!"

And with that, Jenny stormed her way out of the cafeteria with very loud stomps. As soon as she was out of sight, Jason was heading towards another empty table laughing rather loudly.

"What's so funny?" Brit asked.

"Oh, not much; just the fact that she's probably going to snap and kill you both one of these days. Maybe that was a little too harsh," Jason responded while still giggling as he sat down and started eating.

"Pteresa was right. You are really annoying, just like an insect," Brit said.

Jason merely shrugged and continued eating as if none of what she said bothered him at all.

"_It's never any fun when they don't cry or get angry. Nothing I've ever said or done phased him at all_," Brit thought to herself frowning.

Brit refocused her attention on Grace and started grinning again. "_As for the new girl, she'll have to wait. I can't think of anything good at the moment_," she thought to herself.


	4. Chapter 4

Former queen of the Cluster Empire, Vexus, sat there staring out of an open window on the second floor of an abandoned barn. At this point she couldn't tell how long the barn was abandoned, or how long it's been since anyone even lived in the seemingly forgotten farm land about a hundred miles from Tremorton she'd taken up residence in. At this point, she could really care less.

She never did anything to attract attention from anyone in the closest populated area, even though she could scream as loud as she was able for hours on end if she wanted, and would only get a response from the animals; not that she would ever do something that outrageous anyway.

However, she would sit there, staring out that window, for hours on end. The view consisted of a vast field of mostly tall grass, trees in the background, and the usual blue cloudy sky; unless there was a storm.

"Honestly, I cannot understand what these humans see in all this. I see nothing but useless plants, and they call this beautiful," She said softly with no real hint of anger or disgust in her voice.

One of the things she hated about being in that barn is that it was always so disturbingly quiet in there. If she wasn't in the middle of something such as talking to herself, recharging herself with a noisy generator she stole from someone's garage, or trying to find at least one decent song on the radio she found on the first floor, it was usually too quite. There was the occasional creaks and pops in the wood of the old barn, but that hardly constituted for noise.

She frowned and said "I hate to admit it, but I'd rather hear Smytus's and Krackus's irritating arguing right about now than nothing at all."

After she escaped the explosion of the garbage dump asteroid, she never found out whether Smytus or Krackus survived or not. She never exactly cared much for either of them anyway, but at that time, she wished she had searched for them.

She moved all of her joints a little to check if any of them were a little sluggish, and sure enough, her left ankle, and two of the fingers on her left hand were.

"That's probably the only thing I envy the flesh wearers for. They don't have to oil there joints so often like we do. They have to drink water to stay hydrated, but water is far easier to come by. Oil is outrageously expensive on this planet, so I have to resort to petty theft," she said angrily as she applied some oil to her rusting joints. "This damned humid air doesn't help matters either."

Oh how she missed the days spent as Queen when she was in complete control of all of the oil lines on the planet. She thought about this as she drank the rest of the oil from the can.

"Everything was going smoothly until that Wakeman woman created Armagedroid. Then, decades later, she created that accursed XJ9. To this day, it still baffles me as to how she's managed to thwart every one of my plans, every single one of them. Not just mine, but every other villain's plans as well. Oh it just makes me want to scream sometimes…but I know it won't help. It never does," she said angrily.

Three months spent living in that barn, and she still wasn't able to formulate a good enough plan to destroy XJ9. Being over two thousand years old was probably finally taking its toll on her. Perhaps she'd finally lost her touch.

"One of these days XJ9, a plan will come to me that will end your life once and for all," she said still angry.

---------------------------------

Meanwhile, Jenny was just entering her house through the front doorway with a rather unpleasant looking angry expression on her face.

Her mother was sitting in the living room couch reading a newspaper when she finally said "Hello there XJ9. How was school today?"

Jenny stopped walking and said "Please mom…I'm sorry, but I really don't want to talk about it right now."

"What's wro…" Ms. Wakeman was cut off by the fact that Jenny just started walking again before she finished her sentence towards the staircase.

Jenny finally put her right foot on the first stair, paused for a second, and then said "I'll tell you about it later." She then continued up the stairs and to her room.

Ms. Wakeman already knew it was pretty pointless talking about it. She already knew what the problem was. It was the same story almost every time, another series of peer rejection and public humiliation. She noticed that only recently that it was finally starting to take its toll on XJ9. A few weeks ago, she started coming home from school and would head to her room first without saying a word with either a mostly blank or angry expression on her face.

XJ9 was not built to fit in with the population. She was designed to protect the Earth and its people, and that was all Ms. Wakeman originally intended for her to do. Jenny wanted more than that, she wanted a normal life as humans have. She wanted to experience life as we do. She apparently never considered that she would have such a difficult time trying.


	5. Chapter 5

It was a huge room with very little light at all. The room was filled with hundreds of computers and machines all linked together. There was however, only one monitor. In fact, the monitor was the only reason there was any light in the room at all. It emitted a green light.

A few minutes of no activity occurred, until finally, the screen flickered a few times. When it straightened, a message in red reading "CONVERSATION CHANNEL OPEN," appeared on the screen.

A few seconds later, another line appeared in black reading "How soon do you think the project will be ready?"

Another line in blue read "Soon enough, but we shouldn't rush this. We need to make sure we work out all the bugs first."

Another line in black then read "That's fine, but exactly how long do you think it'll take?"

Another line in blue then read "You are always too impatient. I don't really know the exact length of time, but it shouldn't be much longer now."

Another line in black then read "Fine, whatever. You just take care of the project. Once I'm able, I'll retrieve the final component."

Another line in blue then read "The trouble is that we don't know the exact location of the component."

Another line in black then read "Don't you worry about that. I have ways of finding it. I found it before, and I'll find it again."

Another line in blue then read "Well then, I guess we'd better get back to work."

Another line in red then read "CONVERSATION CHANNEL CLOSED."

---------------------------------

Meanwhile, Jenny was on her way to the middle of the city by air in response to a distress signal. The most likely reason was a bank robbery since the largest bank was very close to the center of Tremorton.

She was about a mile away from the center of the city when she finally heard people's screams as they were trying to get away from the area. That was her cue to speed up.

When the bank was finally in her sight, she could barely believe what she was seeing. Well, technically, she wasn't seeing the bank at all. The exterior of the bank was completely covered in thick mud.

As soon as Jenny landed, she immediately ran over to a group of police officers who actually managed to show up before she did for once and asked them "Let me guess, The Mudslinger is responsible, isn't he?"

"Yes," a female officer answered.

"How could he have possibly completely covered the bank so quickly? His powers were strong before, but this is ridiculous. Either he was holding back all this time, or he just recently gained all this power. No one improves that much so quickly," Jenny said with a very surprised tone.

"Yeah, we know what you mean. We really can't figure it out ourselves. From what we heard witnesses say, it only took him two minutes to cover the bank with that much mud. We're not sure why he decided to barricade himself in there though," a male officer said.

"He can't exactly spend the money if he stays in there," the female officer said.

Jenny scanned the mud layer for the weakest point, but ended up disappointed.

"This isn't even regular mud; it's more like really tough rubbery clay. There isn't even one weak point. It's the same thickness all over; ten feet thick to be exact. It'll take at least a few minutes before I can make a hole large enough to get through. That might give him more than enough time to plan an escape. However, it's a good thing that there is only one person there as far as my infrared scanner can detect," Jenny said.

"That ought to give us enough time to surround the building. The other units will be here shortly," the male officer said.

"All right then, I'll start trying to make a hole now," Jenny said as her right arm transformed into a large drill and started spinning.

She ran over to the mud layer and started drilling. A moment later, she could finally hear the sirens from the other units in the distance quickly approaching the area. It only took about twenty seconds before most of her body was also covered in mud. That's the main reason she was actually disappointed in the first place, she knew it was going to be a messy job.

About forty seconds later, and about four feet later, the other police finally arrive and began surrounding the building so The Mudsilnger couldn't escape. The two officers Jenny met already informed the rest of the officers that Jenny was trying to make a hole on one side.

About another minute passed, and Jenny successfully drilled a total of eight and a half feet. About five seconds later, Jenny felt a rumbling in the mud layer. It was minuscule at first, and then suddenly the rumbling started getting progressively more violent.

Surprised, Jenny slowed her pace slightly, but the rumbling kept getting stronger. Jenny stopped drilling completely, and a second later, the rumbling stopped.

She scanned the surface for a few seconds to see if a new element was added to the situation, but she found nothing new. She figured the rumbling was probably due to the fact that she was close to the ten feet mark. She let the drill reach full speed again, and about an inch before the drill touched the mud layer, the rumbling started again. This time, the rumbling was several times more fierce. She looked around and noticed that the walls of mud started closing in on her. She immediately turned around and escaped just in time before she was trapped.

She didn't have any time to stop and think of a new strategy as she noticed that several large hands of mud protruding from the exterior of the mud layer were now chasing after her. Some of the hands were in the form of a fist, and some were open-handed trying to grab her.

As Jenny was trying to outrun the hands and think of a strategy, she thought she should warn the officers not to get too close.

"Hey officers, unless you have a laser cannon or rockets of some kind, don't get too close to those hands," Jenny yelled.

The officers did as they were told and backed away. They normally wouldn't take orders from anyone else, but this wasn't exactly and ordinary situation. Some of the officers had in their possession laser rifles because they thought they might need them to either try to break through the mud layer or fight The Muslinger with them if necessary.

"_This has gotta be a way to stall for time. He could've used those arms any time he wanted to. He waited until I used up all that time drilling before he attacked_," Jenny thought to herself as she transformed both of her arms into large blades.

Finally, the first opening revealed itself. One of the fist-shaped hands smashed into the ground as she dodged it. She took the couple of seconds she had to slice the hand from its wrist. Immediately, she transformed her left leg into an enormous boot and kicked the severed hand about a hundred yards away down the street to make sure the wrist couldn't just re-attach itself. Only, there was the problem of the fact that the wrist could just simply reform another hand, and it did just that.

"_That would've worked if it were a robot," _she thought to herself angrily while continuing to dodge.

She knew that fighting the hands this way wasn't going anywhere, because it wouldn't be long before the hand that she kicked away made its way back to the rest of the mud. It would be an endless cycle.

Jenny then heard laser fire followed by an explosion. She looked to the right to see that a police officer was on a rooftop about a city block away firing at the mud hands. She looked back at the place where the explosion took place and realized that the officer was focusing his shots at the bases of the arms.

"_Good thinking, and good timing. He must've had the right idea before I even suggested that they use lasers_, Jenny thought to herself.

Jenny flew straight upwards until she was out of reach of the arms. She then transformed her arms and legs into laser cannons followed by targeting scopes over her eyes. She took aim at the bases of the arms, and then started firing. She destroyed most of them when, all of a sudden, the remaining arms retreated back into the mud layer. Jenny then fired at the arms that were lying on the ground destroying and scattering most of the mud so that it would take longer to retreat back into the mud layer.

This time, a cannon of mud protruded from the layer pointing directly at the officer standing on the rooftop. Jenny took a shot at the mud cannon with two of her laser cannons. The mud cannon fired just before the laser reached it. She then shot the mud projectile out of the air. The cannon and projectile destroyed, this time, five cannons protruded from the layer. One was pointed at the man on the roof again, and the other four were pointed upwards at Jenny.

Jenny realized that that she probably wouldn't have enough time to destroy all five before the man got hit with a projectile. The man could just move out of the way, but the projectiles would splatter with enough force to knock the man off the rooftop sending him to his death. She could aim at the one pointed at the man instead, but then she would get hit by four projectiles at once knocking her far away. By the time she would've regained her composure, the man could easily have been hit three times by all five projectiles by then.

She took her chances by destroying the four pointed at her first. The one pointed at the man had already fired by that time. She desperately tried to aim at the projectile quickly enough, but had a lot difficulty doing so. Suddenly, the projectile exploded. She then realized that the man on the rooftop successfully shot it out of the air.

Relieved, Jenny aimed back at the mud layer. Before she or The Mudslinger had a chance to think of a new strategy, several other laser beams fired at the mud layer from different directions. Once she realized that some of the other officers were now helping out as well, a megaphone from one of the officers sounded loudly "Jennifer Wakeman, we have just been given the signal to destroy an entire wall of the bank so we can get in there. Just aim at the front side. The vault is in the rear of the bank. It's much easier to replace a cinderblock wall than it is to replace a vault and all its money."

"I hear you loud and clear," Jenny yelled.

All at once, the officers and Jenny fired at the front side of the bank repeatedly. Jenny held back some of her power because she didn't want to cause too big of an explosion. Once the front side wall was destroyed, everyone waited for the smoke to clear before they entered. As it was clearing, Jenny transformed her leg lasers back into her normal legs and changed her left arm back to normal as well while flying in closer to the bank. She kept one arm in laser mode and a scope over her right eye just to be safe. By the time she landed, the smoke had cleared enough for them to have some amount of visibility.

The officer with the megaphone spoke into it saying "All right Mudslinger, come out with your hands up and surrender peacefully.

"I have just one question. If he has this much power now, what kind of prison could we possibly hold him in?" Jenny asked.

"Good question, somebody will figure it out. Somebody always figures these kinds of things out," one of the officers responded.

Jenny then transformed her left eye into a flashlight to see through the darkness. When everyone noticed that the light was shining on a person, they all pointed their guns at the figure partially hidden by the smoke. By this time, the smoke had cleared enough for them to be able to distinguish between different objects.

"Don't worry officers, I already scanned for bombs. There aren't any in there," Jenny assured them.

"Right then, everyone secure the interior," the officer in charge yelled.

Jenny detached her left hand, formed another from inside her wrist, and caught the hand that she dropped before it hit the floor. She threw it into the darkness, and when it landed, it transformed into a ball with multiple lenses that shined brightly enough to allow everyone to be able to see a little better.

As the officers ran around to different areas inside the bank, Jenny ran directly toward who she thought was The Mudslinger. She was surprised to see that it wasn't. It was actually a young woman of about twenty-two. She was strapped to a chair and unconscious.

"Hey, this isn't The Mudslinger," Jenny yelled.

"What?" all of the officers yelled simultaneously.

"It's just a woman strapped to a chair. She's unconscious," Jenny confirmed.

About ten of the officers ran over to the woman to see for themselves. Sure enough, Jenny's eyes weren't malfunctioning.

"Yeah, Ms. Wakeman is right. This is definitely not The Mudslinger," an officer yelled.

"Then where is he?" another officer asked.

"I think I know where," another officer yelled from the other end of the bank.

Most of the officers and Jenny ran over to the other end to see what the officer meant. When everyone reached the other end, they saw the officer pointing at the floor, but it was a little too dark to see what he was pointing at clearly. Jenny shined her flash light eye directly onto the spot where the officer was pointing and found something they didn't expect.

"A hole?" one officer asked.

A few seconds later, Jenny said "Yes, a hole. That means he must've escaped while we were tearing down that wall. He's stronger than I thought then. Tunneling underground requires a lot of power. That means that he must still be traveling. Then again, maybe not. As I'm explaining this, I'm also using infrared vision and sonar to try to track his location. Hopefully I can find him," Jenny said.

"Hold on, if he's traveling underground, shouldn't the ground be rumbling?" one of the officers asked?

Before anyone had time to respond to that, everyone covered their ears as they hear a loud explosion from outside the bank. Jenny flew out of the bank and yelled "What just happened?"

The officers that were still outside pointed to the roof of the bank. Jenny flew to a height in the air to where she could see the entire roof. What she found was another cannon, this time larger and designed for much higher firepower than the other ones. Near the cannon, written in large letters in the mud, were the words "Front page news, XJ9 fails to catch The Mudslinger."

At this point, the mudslinger was too far away to find. Jenny could look for him, but she'd have to risk rusting under the deep lake. She new that's exactly what he aimed for. The fact that she couldn't swim didn't help matters either. The Mudslinger could hide inside of a well hidden ventilated mud ball for days if wanted, but she doubted he'd sit around for that long.

"I change my mind, I'll look for him anyway," Jenny said already irritated.

She flew in the direction of the blast to look for The Mudslinger. Two hours later, she came back empty handed clinching her fists grinding her teeth together pretty hard as it had been a while since she was this angry. She landed at the scene of the crime stomping her way over to the police that were still at the bank.

"Let me guess, you didn't find him, did you?" an officer asked.

"No, no I didn't. The only reason I came back here is to let you know that because I really don't want to talk about it right now. I'll give a full report in the morning when I'm not so pissed off. I don't have school tomorrow since it'll be Saturday," Jenny responded.

"Okay then, we'll be looking forward to it. Just head to the West precinct, that's where we plan to discuss this matter," the officer said.

Jenny nodded, took off into the air, and flew back home.


	6. Chapter 6

Jenny was sitting at the dining room table of her home waiting for her mother to come from the kitchen with dinner. Of course, Jenny wouldn't be eating normal food. Oil and a battery charge was enough for her.

It took Jenny a while to get all of the mud off of her body. She was glad she didn't have human hair for that reason. She was also glad that none of the mud got inside her body.

When Ms. Wakeman finally walked into the dining room, she was carrying a tray with hers and Jenny's dinner on it. She sat their food down in the proper places, and then took her seat next to Jenny.

"You know, I was worried for a moment that you might be losing your touch when the news reporter said that the Mudslinger escaped. I examined your memory logs to find that that wasn't the case. The Mudslinger is not only more powerful than before, he is also much more cunning. It's amazing how persistent these villains are sometimes," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Yeah, even I can't figure it out. Do you have any theories on how he got all that extra power?" Jenny asked.

"At this moment, nothing really meaningful. I'll keep trying to figure it out, but we still need to discuss what all the silent treatment that you've been giving me for the past few weeks is about," Ms. Wakeman said is she lifting a fork full of food to her mouth.

About ten full seconds of complete silence from Jenny passed before she finally said "I'm sure you've already guessed the answer to that question, so why did you bother to ask?" Jenny asked with a hint of irritation in her voice.

As soon as Ms. Wakeman finished swallowing her food, she said "Well, you said you would talk about it later, and now is later."

"To be perfectly honest, I was hoping you'd forget," Jenny said.

"I may be old, but I haven't started developing Alzheimer's disease yet. I wouldn't forget something like that so quickly. I'm aware of what you are going through every day, but you shouldn't let it get to you. There are other goals in life that you can pursue," Ms. Wakeman responded.

"Maybe you don't understand how important this goal is to me because you're not like me. One, you stay cooped up in your lab all day every day, which is why you don't have any real social skills. That's one reason why you wouldn't see it as important. Two, you're not a robot like me, so you wouldn't really understand how hard it is for me to fit in," Jenny yelled with a very angry expression on her face.

"I tried to fit in too when I was young. It didn't work out for me either. I was different from everyone else too. They didn't like me because I was smarter than the rest of them. That might sound vain, but I knew it was true, even back then. Most of those idiots grew up to be drug addicts, mothers with children living on welfare, bums, gang members, or fated to work minimum-wage jobs for the rest of their lives. They thought I was the disgrace, and look at what happened to them. I didn't want to be this straight with you before, but in order to fit in with them, you'll have to follow their example. You could end up just like them one day. I know not all of them are like that, but from my experience, the most popular ones are idiots not worth hanging around. Why do you think the teachers congratulate nerds and frown upon most of the others? They actually went to school to figure out which ones were intelligent, and which ones were idiots. I can almost guarantee you most of the teachers at your school, or any school for that matter, were considered nerds or geeks or what have you," Ms. Wakeman yelled back.

"That is the first time you have been this straight with me mom, but you're still looking at this from a human's point of view," Jenny yelled back.

"Wait, what exactly are you trying to say?" Ms. Wakeman asked puzzled.

"I'll give you some time to think about it on your own. You like trying to figure things out on your own, so you should find this to be an interesting challenge. When you think you've figured it out, come back and talk to me about," she said as she brought the mouth of the oil can to her mouth.

"_I don't think she was really listening to what I said_," Ms. Wakeman thought to herself.

"Okay, fine then. I'll do it your way this time XJ9, and I won't even cheat by checking your private memory logs for the answer," Ms. Wakeman said.

Jenny finished her oil, and then said "Thanks by the way. I was going to mention that."

"In any case, I'm not really in the mood for an argument. I was hoping for a more pleasant discussion, but I see I'm not going to be that lucky. Oh, that's right, Bradley was here earlier and he said something about a new student," Ms. Wakeman said.

"What did he say about her?" Jenny asked.

"He said he didn't have time to explain so we agreed to wait until you returned so you can tell me. He came here to tell you something because his phone service had temporary problems. He didn't have time to stay and wait for you so he went back home," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Well, she's an odd girl. Not just her looks, but she's odd all together. She dresses really old fashioned, I'm talking possibly 1960's or earlier. I don't really know much about the 1900's besides major events, so I could be wrong about the decade. She has brown bushy hair stretching down to the base of her spine and a little hanging over her shoulders. That's not the oddest thing about her though. She has a mental problem that causes her mind to stray from reality from time to time. Basically, she'll be off in her own world somewhere while she mumbles to herself. It's not too noticeable though. She can control it to an extent. She also has trouble walking in a straight line sometimes. The oddest thing about her is her overall appearance. When I first saw her, I could hardly believe what I was seeing. She almost looked like something out of an old story book. Then there's the slightly insane expression on her face and a look in her eyes that seem to stare into your soul if make eye contact with her," Jenny explained.

"She sounds a little scary," Ms. Wakeman said as she continued eating.

"She seems like a nice girl though. I don't think she's dangerous or anything. She's pretty smart too. The teacher was pretty surprised that she was able to answer so many of the questions correctly, and so was I," Jenny explained.

"Well that's a relief. Not too often do I hear about smart students anymore," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Well, she did something that surprised me more than anything else she did. When she saw me for the first time, she got frightened by my appearance," Jenny said.

"And that's surprising, how?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"I wasn't finished. It wasn't ordinary shock. It was a terrifying fear, like she was getting ready to run screaming for her life. She was frozen with fear. I'm sure the other students didn't notice it, but my sensors detected that she was definitely terrified of me. Her whole body was trembling with fear. That's when we made eye contact for that moment. Her body and most of her face revealed fear, but her eye's revealed a small hint of anger, but the anger was hard to notice and might have just been my imagination. That look in her eyes keeps repeating itself in my mind over and over. It's actually pretty scary to think about. She calmed down when someone asked for her name though," Jenny explained.

"And what is her name?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Her name is Grace Harnell," Jenny responded.

"Harnell? I know I've heard that name before, but from where?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Brad had the basically same response to the name Harnell," Jenny said surprised.

"Really? In any case, I'm sure it's not that important," Ms. Wakeman said.

"By the way, I gotta go to the West precinct in the morning to talk to the police about what happened today. I'm sure it's not going to be a pleasant trip," Jenny said.

"I know what you mean. At least you're not talking to Skyway Patrol. Nothing good ever comes from dealing with them anymore," Ms. Wakeman said.

"I don't even wanna think about them. Anyway, I guess I'm done here. I'll be heading off to bed. Good night," Jenny said.

"Good night then," Ms. Wakeman said as Jenny got up, threw her can away, and headed upstairs.

"_She definitely didn't sound very happy when she said good night. She must've been trying pretty hard to sound happy until now_," Ms. Wakeman though to herself.

----------------------------------------------

The next morning, Ms. Wakeman walked into the kitchen and saw a note on the table. She picked it up and read it. It read "I'm going to the police station now mom. I'll be back as soon as possible. Oh yeah, and sorry for the mean things I said last night."

"I accept your apology," Ms. Wakeman said with a smile.

----------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, at the police station, Jenny was heading toward the main conference room when she heard plenty of commotion coming from the room. Apparently, they were already discussing the situation without her.

When she opened the door, she was greeted with a "Well now, it's so nice of you to show up so late," from the chief.

"Hey, it's not my fault. No one ever told me exactly what time to be here," Jenny replied.

"Who told her we were meeting here today?" the chief asked.

"I did sir. I'm sorry that I didn't mention to her the exact time of our meeting," the officer from yesterday evening said.

"Fine, whatever. I'll let it go this time. Since you're only thirty minutes late, I guess it isn't too bad," the chief said as Jenny sat in an empty chair.

"The first question I wanna ask is how much money did The Mudslinger manage to steal?" Jenny asked.

"Well Ms. Wakeman, that's the thing we're baffled about right now. Out of the 40 million that was in that bank, he only took two million of it," one of the officers said.

"What, only two? He could've easily gotten away with a lot more than that," Jenny said surprised.

"Yes, it's a mystery indeed. We're still trying to find out why he only stole two million. Our best guesses are that it's probably not that serious, or he's planning on buying a specific item with it. Of course, we have no idea what that item may be, or if it is only one item. Do you have a database on expensive items of that price range in your hard drive?" the chief asked.

"Hold on, I'll check," Jenny said.

Jenny's eyes closed half way and her entire expression went blank. Binary code zipped across her eyes at amazing speed. No one else in the room could possibly read that fast even if they did understand binary code.

After two minutes of searching her database, Jenny finally opened her eyes all the way and said "I don't really know what he'd want. There's some sports cars for that price, air cruisers, yachts, houses, land, ancient artifacts, paintings, weapons, computers, jet packs, drugs, small businesses, etc. Most of those things don't sound like something The Mudslinger would want. Oh yeah, and by drugs, I mean medical. Most of those things he wouldn't be able to buy without proving where he got the money for it. He even told me himself once that he refuses to use weapons that he doesn't make himself," Jenny explained.

Jenny printed out a complete list of everything she could find on a long piece of paper from her mouth and handed it to the officer sitting next to her.

"That's a complete list of everything in that price range that I can find in my hard drive. The list was last updated 3 weeks ago, so it's possible the prices could've updated since that time. Also, it's not like I have every expensive item in the world in my database, so it's possible it could be something that's not on the list, or something someone just started selling," Jenny explained.

"Of course, what he's looking for probably isn't on the market," the chief said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Jenny said.

"Sir, from what I can see here, there's not many things The Mudslinger would probably want to buy. He was never interested in most of these things. He's always tried to keep a low profile, and if he tried to buy any of this stuff, he'd get caught. So our best bet is to try to look at other sources," the officer with the list said.

"All that's fine for now, but what I wanna know now, is the reasons behind your decision making that led up to The Mudslinger getting away Ms. Wakeman. I understand that you've never failed in capturing a criminal before, and that's an amazing winning streak. I also understand that we had most of the police force on the job as well. My point is, you seemed a little on edge and a little off focus during the entire incident. We believe that we would've at least had a much better chance at capturing him if you were at one hundred percent," the chief said.

"Yes, most of us didn't realize that until we saw the video recording of the incident," an officer sitting to the left of the chief said.

Jenny let out a sigh, and then said "I'm sorry if I wasn't at one hundred percent yesterday. In fact, I'm still feeling that way now. My school life isn't easy at all and my social problems are starting to wear me down some," Jenny answered with a frown.

"I believe your problem is that you are trying to do too much all the time. Plus, pretty much everybody that knows you exist also knows that you're having trouble fitting in with the human population. I imagine it's even worse with your peers. I don't know the details of what you're going through, but you really shouldn't let it get to you. However, if you were officially a police officer, I wouldn't be as kind with you as I'm being now. Robot or not, I would expect you to do your best and do whatever is necessary to deal with your personal problems so they won't be a burden to you when you're on a case. Don't think I'm talking to you this way just because you're a robot. I've never been prejudice or racist or whatever you want to call it. I give the same kind of treatment to every officer on the force, male or female. If a dog could understand English and perform like a police officer, I'd give that dog the same treatment. I understand that you can outperform any of us by hundreds or thousands of times, and I thank you for what you've done so far. I'm just asking that you please try to do whatever needs to be done to alleviate your stress. Of course, I don't mean do anything bad," the chief explained.

"This is the third time since yesterday that somebody has tried to cheer me up with a speech like yours, but I regret to say that a simple speech just isn't enough. My problems just aren't that easy to solve. I wish they were, but they're not. I will consider everything that my teacher, my mom, and you have said to me in hopes that it will at least help some. I will continue to find a solution to my problems. I realize that they are slowing me down and I apologize once again for not being at my best," Jenny said.

"Okay then. Two more things. One, whenever you have time, please do what you can to track The Mudslinger down. Two, whereas we the police force will let your lack of performance pass, I can't guarantee the media and general public will. They give us hell all the time for not being able to capture criminals or save lives, and I expect that they will be even harder on you. Just be prepared for the worst. With that, I guess this meeting is over," the chief declared.

"I have one more question though," Jenny said.

"What is it?" the chief asked.

"It's about the woman we found tied to the chair. Is she ok?" Jenny asked.

"Oh yes, at this point, we're not really sure. She's in a hospital because she didn't wake up since yesterday. We're hoping that she isn't in a coma. Not enough time has passed for us to know for sure. She's not injured, so that's why we can't tell for sure. We'll call you to let you know later," the chief said.

"At least she's not hurt. All right, I guess I'll go home then," Jenny said.

When Jenny finally opened the front door to the police station, she was greeted by over a hundred news reporters and a barrage of bright flashes coming from several cameras.

With a very frustrated look on her face, she thought to herself "_But there was no media here when I arrived, how did so many of them get here so quickly? This is going to be a long one_."


	7. Chapter 7

Vexus found it pretty unusual that she would find herself sleeping late so often. It was already 11:20 am, and she still wasn't awake. Even when she was a queen, and she could do basically whatever she wanted, she almost always woke up at around 7:00 am. The reason was most likely the fact that she felt as if she had nothing better to do anymore.

At 11:42, her eye's finally opened. Once she realized what she was looking at, she grew terribly disappointed.

"I wish I could be staring at the ceiling of my bedroom on Cluster Prime instead of this old dusty wooden piece of garbage ceiling that I'm forced to wake up to every morning," She said with an angry irritated tone.

She heard a slight unusual noise for a second, then it stopped the moment she realized she was hearing it. Not paying it any mind, she let out a sigh. Another few moments of silence passed before she decided that it was time to get out of the bed. She sat up and heard the unusual noise again, only this time, it was much louder. She looked down and found a large beetle on her right thigh. Its legs were scraping against her metal skin making that noise she kept hearing. Surprised, she jumped out of bed screaming at the top of her lungs. The beetle fell off of her thigh and onto the floor.

When she stopped screaming, she finally said "That damned thing is about the size of one of my hands. I didn't know Earth produced such monstrosities."

She walked over to the bug and stared at it for a moment as it struggled to get off its side and back on its feet. When it finally did, Vexus raised her right foot above the beetle as she prepared to crush it. She thrust her foot downward seemingly lightning fast and stopped about a millimeter before touching the beetle.

At this point, Vexus was becoming frustrated. She couldn't figure out why she was unable to bring herself to carry out the deed. After all, it was merely an insignificant insect, right?

The expression on her face kept getting angrier and angrier. Her fists clenched so tightly that her metal skin made a disturbing grinding noise. About another twenty seconds passed before she decided that it probably wasn't worth it and set her foot down on the floor.

She finally calmed down and said "I wouldn't want to have to clean up the mess anyway."

Looking around the room, Vexus finally located the glass pot that she found in a dark corner of the first floor. She sat in down on the dresser beside her bed and never had a use for it until now. She picked up the beetle, walked over to the dresser, and put the beetle down inside the pot.

"It usually is a little boring in here. Scratch that; it's usually very boring in here, but I suppose you'll keep me company somehow," Vexus said with a frown.

After contemplating what she just said for a few moments, Vexus said in an almost whisper "My situation has got to be really bad if I'm forced to find amusement in an Earth bug. Speaking of amusement, I might as well listen to the radio again. There's got to be something worth listening to on that thing."

She walked over to the radio, turned it on, and turned the tuning knob slowly until she found something rather interesting indeed.

"In today's news, the robot named Global Response Unit XJ9, otherwise known as Jennifer Wakeman or Jenny as she likes to be called, actually failed in capturing a criminal for the first time in her otherwise spotless record. The criminal known as The Mudslinger managed to escape from Tremorton's largest bank with two million dollars. Immediately following this event, XJ9 searched for two hours in the area that she and the police believe that he might have landed only to return empty handed. Questioned by news reporters this morning about her performance, she had this to say…" The female announcer said.

"Look people, before you criticize me, go fight a few mega villains yourselves and see how well you fair against them. It's not like you all don't make mistakes from time to time. I tried my best, and he actually managed to outsmart me. It's not like I've completely given up on him either. I'll find him one of these days," Jenny's recorded voice was played back.

"In other news, the price of oil just went up by 3 cents today," Was the last thing Vexus heard the news reporter say before she changed the station to a station playing classic rock music from the early twenty first century. Since it was the year 2093, the music playing was considered classic.

"Well well XJ9 my dear, this is a first. I wonder what's bothering you. Something seems to be slowing you down. I can't get too excited though. This could just be fluke. Let's see how progressively worse your little problem becomes," Vexus said with a grin.

-----------------------------

The time was 11:42 am. The computer filled room still dark with only the green computer screen to provide any light at all. The screen flickered then straightened.

A message in red reading "CONVERSATION CHANNEL OPEN," appeared on the screen.

Another line in black read "Phase one is completed."

Another line in blue read "Phase? That was more like a simple test than a phase. Since when did we decide to start calling them phases?"

Another line in black read "What we are trying accomplish isn't some ordinary task. Calling it a phase makes it sound so much more important. It makes it seem as if we're actually doing something worth our efforts."

Another line in blue read "So, you mean that you're calling it that for some kind of confidence boost, are you? Being overconfident got us in the mess that we're in now. At this point, I could care less about confidence boosts. I just want to actually succeed this time."

Another line in black read "Though I despise that kind of attitude, I'll admit that you are right this time. We should take this a little more seriously."

Another line in blue read "Any luck locating the component?"

Another line in black read "Not yet. In fact, I didn't think I would have quite this much trouble finding it."

Another line in blue read "How come?"

Another line in black read "Well, it's actually much more difficult to find when it's not active. But don't worry, I said that I found it before, and I'll find it again."

Another line in blue read "Well, I guess that's okay for now. It's not like we're in a rush."

Another line in black read "Maybe so, but I do want to get this over with."

Another line in blue read "Me too."

Another line in red then read "CONVERSATION CHANNEL CLOSED."


	8. Chapter 8

Brad, Tuck, and Jenny picked an empty table to sit at in Tremorton City Park. The entire area of the park itself was usually unoccupied. This was mainly because whoever wanted to go to that area would have to travel about a mile from the entrance to get there. Since Brad, Tuck, and Jenny didn't mind walking there, they had the entire area to their selves. Jenny would normally pick a more populated area, but after the media hounding her for a while, she didn't want that much company for the time being.

"I see you're glad you finally got away from those reporters," Tuck said as he picked up a chili dog that had chili dripping from it.

"Tuck, you know that's way too much chili for one hot dog," Brad commented.

Tuck started speaking with a mouth full of his lunch trying to explain why he ordered the excess amount of chili.

"That's gross Tuck. Can you please swallow that before you try talking?" Jenny asked while trying to avoid looking into his food filled maw.

Tuck practically choked the food down, and then said "Well, if you must know, I decided to get as much chili as I could without being charged extra. It's called getting what you paid for. You should try it sometimes."

"That's more like taking advantage of someone's kindness. Those condiments aren't meant for just one person," Brad explained.

"I say it's his fault for not charging the appropriate amount for them. Besides, there was plenty of chili left for everyone else when we left," Tuck said.

"Anyway, I wouldn't mind being a superhero myself, but I wouldn't want to have to deal with the media," Brad said.

"Unfortunately, that comes with the package. There's virtually no way to avoid that," Jenny explained.

"You could always point a laser at them so they'll avoid you, but then you'd be considered more of a villain than a hero," Tuck said.

"I really wish it was that simple sometimes. So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about anyway Brad?" Jenny asked.

"Oh yeah, about the new girl. I have faint memories about that last name of hers. I'm not sure if what I remember is about her specifically, but the name Harnell is starting to bring back strange faint memories about something that used to scare me when I was young. I'm talking young as six or seven years old. Remember when I told you a while ago that I used to have nightmares a lot when I was younger, but now I don't really remember what those nightmares were about or what could've caused them?" Brad asked.

"Now you're starting to scare me," Tuck said.

"I do remember you saying something about that," Jenny replied.

"The thing about it is that it could just be my imagination, but for some reason, that name keeps ringing in my head. It might just be too many scary movies or something," Brad explained.

"I will admit that girl does look kind of scary sometimes. You might have seen somebody that looked sort of like her in some old movie when you were a kid," Jenny said.

"What does this girl look like anyway?" Tuck asked.

"This'll be easier than explaining it over and over again," Jenny said as she printed out a color picture of Grace from her mouth and handed it to Tuck.

Tuck stared at the picture for about a minute with a puzzled expression on his face then lay the picture down on the table and said "Wow. She does look kinda weird. For some strange reason, she looks oddly familiar. I can almost swear I've seen her from somewhere before, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

"I don't remember her at all, I just remember Harnell," Brad said.

"Maybe one of us should tell her about this," Jenny suggested.

"Not me," Tuck said.

"I wasn't talking about you Tuck. You don't exactly go to our school," Jenny said.

"I guess we could, but I don't really want to," Brad said.

"Why not?" Jenny asked.

"I talked to mom about this yesterday, about my childhood nightmares, and she acted as if she didn't remember that time. I know she remembers them because I remember her coming in my room at night to calm me down. This wasn't a short one or two week period. This was more like a few months. There's no way she could've forgotten all of that," Brad explained.

"Mom pretty much remembers everything too. But what does this have to do with you not wanting to talk the new girl about it?" Tuck asked.

"Her name is Grace," Jenny confirmed.

"Well, let's just say I have a bad feeling about it all. Something tells me that if I bring up the subject to Grace, the conversation won't be too pretty after that point. If mom really is hiding something, then it's probably for a good reason. The two don't seem to connect very well just by explanation alone, but they somehow seem to connect to me. I can't really explain why for now because I just don't remember enough," Brad explained.

"I can sort of see what you're trying to say, but this could all be mere coincidence. Maybe you have been watching too many movies," Jenny said.

"Oh yeah, I also found out that Grace is actually living in the orphanage. Turns out she doesn't have any parents," Brad explained.

"I didn't know that. What happened to her parents?" Jenny asked.

"That I don't know," Brad answered.

"Right, you probably didn't ask. It probably isn't appropriate to ask either," Jenny said.

"So, what you been readin' over there, Tuck?" Brad asked as eyed the book sitting beside Tuck's lunch.

"I didn't know you liked reading," Jenny said.

"I don't. However, this is one exception. My teacher told the class to find a book and do a report on it. I found this one in that book store mom took me to a few days ago," Tuck explained.

"So, what's it called?" Jenny asked.

"Forgotten Myths and Legends: Volume 1. Turns out they started collecting a bunch of old scrolls and incomplete stories and made it into a book. They'd been collecting them for over 50 years, and are just now making them into books. I read this really cool, but kinda scary story about a town in Japan that was wiped out in only a couple of hours. The only survivors were the ones that were away from the town at the time of the attack. They were on their way back to town when they heard explosions and screams coming from the town; huge explosions that no weapon that they knew of could possibly make," Tuck explained.

"That's a little scary, but I've seen worse on TV," Brad commented.

"Oh, but it get's weirder. They didn't see an army anywhere in sight, so they couldn't tell what was causing the explosions. When they listened more closely, they could hear some of the people screaming the word demon. At first they thought they were talking about the group of ninja who called themselves The Demon, a group of ninja who worked as a team, but made a really big effort to make it seem like there was only one member. When all the screaming stopped, they heard a loud insane sounding laugh come from the village. Then the entire town exploded all at once. The witnesses were really lucky to have been away from the town when this happened. They looked into the flames and saw what looked like a man, but he wasn't being burned alive. The man laughed again then took off flying into the air and into the distance with his body surrounded in fire. That's when they realized it was a real demon. Since then, the same demon has been seen in three other places around the world. The most recent one was in 1902 in Russia. The book says it will continue with this story in later volumes because there is supposed to be more to it," Tuck explained.

"Wow, that is kind of scary?" Jenny said with a somewhat concerned expression on her face.

"Yeah, it almost sounds like it really happened. Not that I really believe it, but are you sure those are legends in that book or real life events?" Brad asked.

"The book says that some of the stories may sound pretty convincing, but there's not enough evidence to back up any of them," Tuck replied.

"Just imagine it though. What if that demon was real? You think you could take somebody like that down Jenny?" Brad asked.

"First of all, it's only a story. That whole incident most likely never happened, just like most other outrageous sounding stories. To answer your question though, I'm not sure. I'd have to see him in action first before I can make that judgment. The story said that he blew up an entire town in a single blast, and that's difficult even for me to do, even if it is a small Japanese town from hundreds of years ago. If he did ever show up, I'd have to at least try to beat him though," Jenny explained.

"I'm pretty sure you'd win. You won every other battle, well, besides the one with Misty. No offense," Brad said.

"None taken. Oh yeah, and Tuck, I don't think it would be a good idea to focus too much on that story when you give your report. You might scare the other kids," Jenny suggested.

"I understand. There are plenty of other stories in here that aren't that bad," Tuck said.

"Okay then, when we're done here, you guys wanna go see a movie? The Saturday matinee is at 3:00 pm instead of 2:00 pm this time," Brad suggested.

"As long as it's not another zombie movie. We just saw like ten of those this week already. I like them, but more than ten in a week is a little too much," Tuck said.

"Yeah, I might as well go. I don't have anything else scheduled for today," Jenny said.

"All right then, it's settled. Three o'clock it is. And no, I didn't plan on seeing another zombie movie," Brad said.


	9. Chapter 9

"Sir, the monitor is showing some unusual activity," an employee of one of the city's major companies said as he was trying to get his bosses attention.

The office was a little crowded with five people trying to tell the manager something different.

"One at a time people," the manager said a little frustrated.

Everybody was still trying to talk over each other, and this was only making the manager even more irritated.

"_That's one thing I hate, is when people honestly believe that what they have to say is so much more important than what other people are trying to say, so they talk over each other_," the manager thought to himself.

After another ten seconds or so, the manager finally yelled "SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU!"

Everyone finally did as they were told, and then the manager said "You people act like children some times. Can you please wait your turn? Now, one at a time."

"Mr. Green called a few minutes ago, and he said he can't make it to the meeting tomorrow, and without him, the meeting will have to be rescheduled," one woman said.

"Right, I'll call him about that later on," the manager said.

"Sir, your signature is needed. The new equipment we purchased has just arrived," a man said.

"It's about time. We've been waiting for that for weeks now," the manager said.

As soon as the manager signed the document, another man said "Two of the toilets are stopped up really bad in the men's room, and as you know, the janitor is sick today. Who should I get to take care of this problem?"

"I would get one of you to do it, but your jobs are a little more important than most of the other employees. Let's see, get John to do it," the manager said.

All of the employees started giggling, trying to hold their laughter in when the manager said "All right, that's enough of that. I didn't pick him for that reason. That was just the first name I thought of."

"Sure it was. But seriously though, we just got a call from that restaurant you like so much, and they said there will be about a fifteen minute delay in delivering your lunch sir," another woman said.

"That's fine, I can wait. I still don't like the fact that they do that so often, but there food is always good, so I can't really complain too much. Anyway, you were saying something about monetary or something?" the manager asked pointing at the last employee.

"No sir, I said monitor. There has been some unusual activity on the monitor. We think there might be something wrong with the main computer," the man explained.

"Well then, I will have to take a look at it. I'll be in there in a couple of minutes. If no one else has anything to say, you can all go back to doing your jobs," the manager said.

And with that, the employees left the room to return to their designated areas.

Three and a half minutes later, the manager arrived in the control room.

One of the men sitting in front of the monitor said, "Oh, there you are. We don't really know if this is a problem or not, but there is some new data that we are having trouble deciphering."

"New data?" the manager asked.

"Yes, we don't know how it got there. We discovered it about twenty minutes ago. We can't tell if it's a virus or not either. For all we know, this data has always been there and we are just now noticing it. It definitely seems new, but if it isn't, how we could've possibly overlooked it for so long is something that is way beyond our understanding," one of the men explained.

"Let me have a look at it for a second," the manager said.

One of the men stood up and let the manager sit so he could try to decipher the strange data.

After a few minutes of trying to decipher the data, the manager finally said "This computer isn't hooked up to the internet, so it couldn't have been downloaded from an outside source. And no, I can't decipher it either. I've never seen a configuration like this before. I can't tell if it's a glitch, or if someone's been tampering with the computer. We can't run the risk of trying to delete this data yet either. We need to get some people who are more expert than us in here as soon as possible. If it is a threat, we need to find out soon."

"Well, you know…" one of the men said hesitantly.

"What is it?" the manager asked.

"I know you said not to mention her, but if we really need to…" the man said.

"No. Don't contact that woman unless we really have no other choice. She irritates the hell out of me every time I meet with her," the manager said angrily.

"Well, she is one of the best, sir. I'm sure she could figure it out much faster than…" the man said.

The manager cut him off again and said "No. Let's try someone else first. I'll only call her as a last resort."

"Okay, if you say so. I'll get right on it then," the man said as he headed towards the nearest phone.


	10. Chapter 10

Monday morning, a morning on a day that Jenny actually hoped wouldn't come. It seemed inevitable that she would receive all kinds of comments on the fact that she wasn't able to capture The Mudslinger. She definitely didn't want to hear any of it.

As she headed towards her first class, she was greeted with many awkward looks from some of the students in hallways. The awkward looks, to her, were in some ways, just as bad as the comments. Not only did she get the looks from students, but faculty as well.

Even when she walked into the classroom, she was greeted with the very same kind of look from Mr. Tier.

After a few seconds of staring at each other, Mr. Tier finally said "I can see the look of anger in your eyes Jennifer. I take it you've already gotten this kind of treatment since you arrived at school. The only reason I did it was to let you know that this is most likely going to take place all day, and probably longer. I don't plan on saying anything about what happened Friday, because I know you don't want to hear it. I just want you to know that hoping for the best in this case won't really do you any good. If I could help stop it from happening, I would. It's just something you're going to have to endure until it's over. I just hope you don't let your anger get the best of you."

"Trust me; I'm definitely trying to hold it in. It's not so bad yet, but I know it's gonna be," Jenny said as she took her seat.

-----------------------------

By lunch time, Jenny was pretty close to losing her temper. She tried her best not to make it seem too obvious in her expression and actions.

In an attempt to avoid meeting with the Krust Cousins, she chose to sit in the outside eating area. Brit and Tiff usually never chose the outside area, so they most likely wouldn't choose it today. At least she hoped so anyway.

After a few minutes of sitting to herself, she heard Brad's voice behind her saying "Yeah, I thought I'd find you out here today."

Brad sat across the table from Jenny and started eating some of his spaghetti.

"Yep, you guessed right. I'm out here to try to stay away from the Krusts…again. You guess it right every time. It's the main reason I come out here in the first place," Jenny said with a very strong hint of irritation in her voice.

"Whoa, try to calm down. I know you're upset, but you need to try to relax. You're pretty dangerous when you lose your temper," Brad said.

"I'm well aware of that, but I can barely take it anymore. I hardly ever get a break as it is; and now that I make one mistake, everybody's on my case. They act like they've never made any mistakes in their lives," Jenny said becoming increasingly more angry.

"Well, it is true. We do make mistakes," Brit's voice could be heard from far behind Jenny.

Jenny remained quite. At this point she was using a great amount of her will power to keep from hurting Brit. She had a great feeling that Brit was going to say something that was going to make her completely lose it this time. She tried to pretend as though the Krusts weren't there, so she didn't even turn around to face them.

"We humans can't even afford the mistakes that we do make; and when the so-called heroes make mistakes, we suffer a lot more for it," Brit said coldly.

"I still cannot understand how you can continue saying such mean and hateful things about Jenny," Sheldon said angrily as he walked in through another door.

Everyone focused their attention on Sheldon.

"Oh, look Brit. It's lover boy again. I still can't see how you can continue to be in love with a robot," Tiff said.

"First of all, I don't care about what you think of my preferences anymore. As to exactly why I prefer her over human women is not a tale for people like you. I heard about what happened Friday, and I also heard about the fact that Jenny's been catching hell for it ever since. As many times as she has saved all of our lives, we should be thanking her. Honestly Jenny, I don't know how you can put up with it. If it were me, I would've probably waited for an invasion, and left everyone here on Earth to be murdered or enslaved as a punishment for their lack of gratitude," Sheldon said.

"You wouldn't really do that, would you?" Brit said worriedly.

"Yeah man, that's pretty mean," a male student also said worriedly.

"Mean? Don't make me laugh. If I recall correctly, you are also one of the one's that says some pretty mean things to Jenny pretty often," Sheldon said.

"Whatever dude. I'm not going to sit around and listen to this shit. Let's get outta here," the male student said to the other two students sitting at the table with him.

As they were heading towards an exit, Sheldon said "Where are you going? We just got started."

The trio said nothing and left the area.

"You know Sheldon, you're getting to be a little too brave for your own good. That guy was about three times your size. He could've snapped you in two," Brit said.

At that moment, Brad noticed oil spilling from the sides of the can that Jenny was putting deep dents in. He looked back up at Jenny's face to see that she was being filled with a terrible rage. Jenny was at her maddest when the black color in the colored portion of her eyes turned white, and they were slowly losing their color.

A very nervous Brad whispered "Jen…Jenny.

He wasn't getting through to her at all. He called out to her repeatedly, but nothing worked.

"Hey Brit, robo girl aint said a word since we been out here," Tiff pointed out.

"I noticed. I sure hope you aren't crying over there XJ9," Brit said sarcastically.

Both Brit and Tiff started laughing and the laughter from the other students in the area followed afterwards. At that moment, both Brad and Sheldon both saw something they would probably never forget. The color of Jenny's irises and pupils turned completely white, her facial expression was more furious than they had ever seen before, and she crushed the can with enough force to splatter the oil all over the table, some on herself, and some on Brad. All of her internal motors started spinning at top speed making a terrible screeching noise.

Jenny got up and turned facing Brit, and then yelled "That's it!"

Before anyone could see what happened, Jenny was standing right in front of Brit with one of her fists in the wall that Brit was leaning against. Some of the students stood up as a reflex action, but no one could say anything. The same thing with the other students and faculty that were in the inside seating area as they were watching this event take place through the windows. Brit was terrified at this point, so much so, that she couldn't react. Jenny yelled again, and started punching the wall behind Brit with amazing speed. No one could really see the punches as they appeared to only be blurs. After about seven seconds, Jenny stopped and lifted Brit into the air by her jacket. That was when Brit's clothes finally revealed that Jenny was purposefully ripping them as well while she seemed to only be aiming at the wall.

"Seriously Jenny, don't do it. You'll kill her," Brad yelled.

After hearing a few more of the same pleas, Jenny yelled "Shut up, all of you!"

They did as they were told, and then Jenny yelled "You are seriously fucking lucky I didn't completely lose control Brit. I'm pretty sure your ears are ringing like crazy right now because of how much damage I caused to the wall. Just one of those punches would've splattered your head all over the place. Out of all my enemies, you are the only one I've considered killing. Even Vexus, as evil as she is, I never once seriously considered ending her life. The only thing that's prevented me from doing what I'm doing now before was the fact I devoted my life to protecting human life. Sure my mom programmed me to protect you all, but it was me who made the decision to stay that course."

Jenny then grinned and yelled "And you, do you really think that you'd still be rich right now if I had did what Sheldon said letting the Cluster take over as a punishment for your lack of gratitude. When I say your, I do of course mean the whole human race. In fact, it's really your dad that's rich. You just happen to be his spoiled daughter. The Cluster would've stripped him of his valuables, a lifetime's worth of work taken from him in an instant. That would leave you with nothing. You would then either have been killed or forced into a lifetime of slavery, most likely doing forced labor. Oh, wait, you would actually have most likely been killed. Since you most likely have never done a day's work in your life, your body would be too weak to do the labor they would demand. They wouldn't have a use for you then. Is that a little too much reality for you?" Jenny asked as tears of fear started rolling down Brit's face.

Jenny blocked a chair that Tiff attacked Jenny with. She grabbed the chair and tossed it to the side.

"Let Brit go dammit," Tiff yelled.

Tiff was also scared that she was going to lose her cousin to the wrath of the robot that was supposed to protect them.

"You know you can't beat me Tiff. I can survive bombs, and you think a cheaply made plastic and stainless steel chair is going to hurt me. You aren't even the one that I'm angry at. In fact, I pity you. The only reason you say most of the crap that you say to me, is that you feel somehow secure with Brit standing around, and the fact that one of the big guys in this school might protect you. Brit can't protect you Tiff. You are at least twice as strong as she is, or haven't you realized that yet. I've heard about you before you started living with Brit. You were a shy, scared little girl with no parents. You were poor and lived in foster care until Brit came and rescued you. I don't know exactly how you turned from being shy and scared to what you are now. But as I was saying, I've considered killing you only because you kept pushing the issue until the walls of my restraint started coming down Brit. You, out of all the people I've met, you are the only one to ever push me to this point. But no, I won't kill you, but you better watch yourself from now on. One of these days, you might just push me to this point again, or further. I'm sure you don't want the latter," Jenny said as she slowly put Brit back down on her feet.

Jenny's internal motors slowed down to normal speed, her eyes returned to their normal color, and she let go of Brit's Jacket. Brit dropped to her knees still terrified as Tiff ran to her side.

"You okay girlfriend? Tiff asked softly.

Brit turned her head towards Tiff and nodded.

"I don't expect an apology from either of you right now, and I really don't want it. It would seem more like an insult hearing that from you two considering how sarcastic you usually are. I'll pay for your clothes and I'll fix this wall, but it'll have to wait. I'm still pissed off," Jenny said with a strong hint of anger still left in her voice.

Jenny turned around ready to walk away when she said one more thing "And just what the hell do you know about me crying anyway Brit? I can't cry."

Everybody realized just then how serious that limitation was and a lot of them started feeling sorry for her. And with that said, Jenny stormed out of the eating area and Brad and Sheldon followed after her. It took a few minutes for everyone else to regain their usual composures and continue on with their usual activities, for that event was one they would probably never forget.


	11. Chapter 11

"I finally got this bug to eat something," Vexus said relieved.

She sat down on the bed and started staring at the beetle as it was eating a large leaf.

"It's amazing how long it took me to figure this out. It shows just how little I know about this planet. As much as I resemble a bug, I should know more about them. The worst part about it is that there are billions of leaves right outside of this house. If you could understand what I was saying, you'd be finding a way to repay me for my services little bug," She said.

After another few moments of staring at the beetle, Vexus said "Come to think of it, I guess it's about time to come up with a name to call you. Yes, but the problem is, I can't tell whether you are a male or a female. Looks like I'll have to do a little research. Getting my hands on a book without being seen will be tricky though. Wait, who am I kidding? I can just transform. It's not like I'm trying to disguise myself from XJ9 or Ms. Wakeman. Most of these pathetic humans are too dimwitted to see through most of my disguises."

She walked over to the open window and started to climb out. She turned and looked back at the beetle once again and was prepared to tell it that she'll be back soon, but stopped and said "That's right, you can't understand me anyway." She then jumped out of the window, activated her wings, and started flying towards the nearest town.

As Vexus approached the outer limits of the nearest town, she decided to land in the woods so she could transform there. By the time she walked out of the woods, she had just finished transforming into what looked like a taller and much more mature looking version of one of her earlier transformations she called Vicky. Instead of looking like a high school girl, this time she looked more like a fashion designer. She also wore a large hat that matched her outfit as well. Already aware that someone who looked as rich as she did at the moment would seem pretty odd walking into a small town library, she was actually counting on people staring at her.

She got exactly the kind of attention she predicted as she entered through the library doors. Of course, their reactions differed the most depending on whether the humans were male or female. Not really paying a lot of attention to their reactions, she walked up to the front desk and asked the librarian, "What section has the most detailed information on bugs, beetles specifically?"

"Bugs? Oh, would you happen to be a fashion designer or something, looking for bugs' natural body designs?" the man asked.

"Yes actually. You hit the nail on the head, or whatever it is some people say," Vexus replied.

"Okay then. That section would be right over there. If you want, you could also look it up on the internet," he said as he pointed to the computer.

"_Ah yes, I'd forgotten that the humans have their own form of internet. Why didn't I think of this sooner. But if it's similar to the one on Cluster Prime, I'd have a better chance looking at both_," Vexus thought to herself.

"Okay then, I'll check the books first though. I'm not really used to the internet yet," Vexus said as she walked over to the bookshelves.

"_Not used to the internet yet? It's really amazing that in the year 2093, there are still adults who don't have basic computer skills. They are definitely out there though_," the man thought to himself.

Vexus had computer skills, in fact, her skills were actually very good. She was a computer after all. The problem was the characters on the keys, and the layout of the entire computer, hardware and software. She was pretty sure that trying to get used to it all would be rather frustrating.

After looking through the books for a few hours, she finally got up to leave the store.

The man sitting at the front desk asked "Aren't you going to check out a few of those books? I know you need to be specific about your designs."

"So, what you're asking me is aren't I going to need the pictures as a reference? There's no need. I have it all up here," Vexus said as she pointed to the top of her head.

"Okay then, but if you ever need to stop by here again, feel free. You're always welcome," the man said.

"Thanks," Vexus said as she began walking towards the door.

"You know, I could've sworn I've seen you from somewhere before. You definitely look familiar," the man said.

Vexus turned her head to look at the man and said "I actually get that more often than you know."

Vexus left the store and headed for the woods that she came from.

"_It's a good thing I can simply save what I see to my hard drive, otherwise I would have to check out those books_," she thought to herself.

When she finally returned to the barn, she found that the beetle had finished eating for the time being. The beetle had eaten over half of the food given to it.

Vexus sat down on the side of the bed closest to the beetle and began checking through her files once again to make sure she didn't make a mistake in determining the bug's gender. She also inspected the beetle itself to be sure. She had to be careful not to accidentally break its legs in the process.

"After inspecting this creature, I have come to the conclusion that it is indeed a male. A little disappointing, I was hoping for a female. In any case, I don't plan on searching around outside for another one. I guess a male will have to suffice," She decided.

"Now let's see. What would be a good name for you? Do you have any good suggestions?" She asked the beetle.

Unable to understand or respond, the beetle continued to slowly wander around inside its container aimlessly.

"No, of course you wouldn't. You're just a bug. Hmm…how about Brutus? No, that sounds too familiar. I want your name to be a little more unique. Mucus is just gross. Martus…hmm…I'll think about it. What about Mozgus? Wait…no…the name doesn't really sound familiar, but it sounds like it probably belongs to comic book character or something. I might get sued for that," She said followed by a giggle.

"Wow, I didn't realize coming up with a suitable name for a male could be so difficult. This could take hours. It only took about 30 seconds for me to come up with a name for my daughter Vega. I'll continue to think about it. I'm sure something will come to me sooner or later," She said.


	12. Chapter 12

After school that day, Jenny, Sheldon, and Brad were all on the roof of the school gym. It was a separate building from the rest of the school. They even had benches for people to sit should they want to relax there. It was actually pretty safe. There was no real danger of falling off because there was a fence set up around the roof's edges.

Sheldon and Brad sat on one bench, and Jenny sat by herself on a bench across from them. For over an hour, Jenny said nothing at all. She was still filled with a terrible rage and she didn't feel like talking about it for the time being. Sheldon and Brad both decided to remain quite as well to give her time to think.

Jenny was leaning to her right with her elbow resting on the arm of the bench. Her right hand was used to support her head under her chin. Her head was also pointed to the right, so she wasn't even looking at Brad or Sheldon. She remained in the exact same position for almost the entire time she sat there.

"_She never even needs to blink, does she? Now that I think about it, the only times I've ever seen her blink was when something got in her eyes_," Brad thought to himself.

A click was heard coming from inside Jenny's body. This sound made both Sheldon and Brad look up at Jenny in surprise. Jenny sat up slowly and held up an open right hand.

"Five, four, three, two, one," Jenny said in harsh tone.

Just then, her chest plate opened up and a robot arm with a small monitor extended from inside her body. The monitor turned to face Jenny and turned on revealing a very concerned Ms. Wakeman.

"XJ9, what on Earth happened to you today? You're anger readings were off the charts," Ms. Wakeman yelled.

"I was surprised you didn't notice sooner. I assume you must've been out shopping or something, right?" Jenny asked.

"Well, yes," Ms. Wakeman answered.

"Listen mom, right now…I'm really not in the mood for talking about this. I'm not in the mood for much of anything right now. I'm sure the Principal or somebody will call you about it. You'll know what happened by then. If not, or if they don't explain it well enough, I will explain it all later," Jenny explained.

"I need to know. What have you gotten yourself into?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"MOM," Jenny yelled "Please…don't make this any harder for me right now."

Ms. Wakeman could see the look of rage on her face. This was her first time seeing her daughter this angry before.

Ms. Wakeman sighed and said "All right, fine. I will leave you alone for now."

The monitor turned off and returned to its place inside of Jenny's body and her chest plate closed.

She stood up and said "Listen you two. I'm sorry that I wasted so much of your time today, keeping you waiting, but I really don't feel much like talking about this now. I appreciate your concern. I really do. I'll…I'll try to make it up to you as soon as I can."

She was getting ready to take off when Sheldon said "I really want to know one thing though. You said you can't cry, but I remember seeing you cry before."

Jenny closed her eyes and clenched her fists so tightly that the metal began to grind together. Her whole body even began to tremble.

She growled loudly and yelled "Yes. That's right. I can't cry. I can feel the emotions necessary for it…and I can simulate the actions of crying like you can, even my trembling voice…but I can't actually cry. It may have seemed pretty convincing to you, but I was only faking it. I can't even produce tears. They…would only make me rust. The closest thing to crying that I'm actually able to do…is what you're seeing right now."

Sheldon took one step forward towards Jenny holding out his left arm towards her, and she yelled "Stay back. I don't need your sympathy right now."

Jenny activated her rockets and took off into the air at high speed leaving both Sheldon and Brad behind. Sheldon slowly lowered his left arm back to its original position. For a whole minute, Sheldon looked straight down at his feet silently.

Before Brad could say anything, Sheldon said "There has always been one thing I've hated in life."

"And what's that?" Brad asked.

"It's when I want to help someone, but I can't because they don't want it," Sheldon replied.

"So I'm guessing that it's not just some crazy obsession like everybody says. You really do love her, don't you?" Brad asked.

"Yeah," Sheldon answered.

"Seriously, why do you love her?" Brad asked.

"Ever since I started going to school, I've been considered an outcast. I've even been considered an outcast to most of the other outcasts. Believe it or not, I used to cry a lot because of it. That may not be a very manly thing to say, but it's true. People tend to hate different things, things that they have trouble understanding. I was into action figures, comic books, science, robots, and just about everything else that most 'normal' people would find to be weird. I wasn't into those barbaric practices people call sports. I wasn't into most things that are considered to be normal, and I'm still not. I never talk about it, but I had to have several counseling sessions when I was younger just to keep from killing myself. It sounds pretty shocking to you, doesn't it? I can see it in your eyes. That's just how bad it got. I could tell that the other kids most likely wouldn't even care if I went through with it. They didn't even want me around anyway," Sheldon explained.

"So then, what does this have to do with Jenny?" Brad asked.

"It has a lot to do with her. If you haven't noticed, she's already starting to show the signs," Sheldon replied.

"Wait, you don't mean that Jenny might try to kill herself too, do you?" Brad asked concerned.

"Maybe. It's a strong possibility. If you remember correctly, I looked at her master plan. I know that she can't self-terminate directly. If you're about to ask why I didn't know that she couldn't cry, it's because I didn't have time to look at that information before Vexus stole it. She may not be able to self-terminate directly, but she can do it indirectly. She could always put herself an in impossible to escape situation. I know she's showing the signs because I was just as angry and bitter as she is now. That's the way it seems anyway. She's probably farther off the deep end right now than I ever was. I doubt she'll do it any time soon because she hasn't started sulking yet. It's a little more complicated than normal sulking. What I'm talking about is a much more extreme case. It's to the point where you start to completely shut the whole world out, not letting anything or anybody in for extended periods of time. By this point, you've literally become too tired to be angry or even cry any more. That was my case anyway. It might be different for her, but I still doubt she'll try it any time soon," Sheldon explained.

"That's pretty deep man. I've never been that down before. You still haven't explained why you like Jenny though," Brad said.

"You're kind of impatient. Anyway, as I was saying. You know very well that she is also an outcast. It isn't to the point where people are throwing stones at her screaming what is that thing, but she's probably is the biggest outcast on Earth right now. I feel for her, because I've always been the biggest outcast everywhere I go, or so it seems. I know what she's going through. When I saw her for the first time, I was immediately attracted to her. I somehow felt that she was like a mirror image of what I'd been going through my whole life. I felt that maybe this was my chance to get finally get a girl to like me. I thought that maybe she'd understand me. Only, at the time, she wasn't completely that mirror image. There was a difference. She displayed a confidence that she could find a way to fit in that I could never display. That's what made me attracted even more. Well, you know how that turned out. It never worked. I want to be there for her when she needs comforting, but how can I if she is always shutting me out?" Sheldon asked.

"There's one thing I've discovered on my own about women. For a lot of them, their standards are too high. They want the best kind of man. I bet they somehow think they deserve it or something, as if it's their right. Of course, what is considered to be the best man is a concept made up at some point long ago. Not every woman can have the best kind of man, and not every man can have the best kind of woman either. There isn't enough of them out there for that to be possible. Sometimes in life, you have to know when you've been beaten, and settle for what you can get. If you don't, life can be very miserable for you. You are an exception though, you don't even have the worst. Neither do I, but that's not the point. Not everybody can have the best, but they can possibly have the best for them. Jenny is probably the best for you, and you are probably the best for Jenny," Brad explained.

"You really think so," Sheldon asked.

"I think so anyway. You're the only human to ever express that much of an interest in her," Brad answered.

"I thought you liked her too though," Sheldon pointed out.

"I did. But I don't really see her that way anymore. I see her as more of a friend, or possibly even a sister. Plus, my attraction to her was never nearly as strong as yours is," Brad explained.

"Thanks Brad, I needed that. I guess I just need to push even harder then," Sheldon said with a more confident look on his face.

"That's the spirit. That's the Sheldon I know. Anyway, I think we should go home or something. We do have homework to do. I'm sure Jenny will get over it soon enough," Brad suggested.

As they were leaving the rooftop, they never realized that someone was listening to their conversation. On the top floor of the gym, Grace was staring out of the window when she heard Jenny, Brad, and Sheldon start talking. She heard everything.

"Maybe…she really isn't…bad…after all," She said softly.

--------------------------------------------

Jenny was flying in one direction until she reached a place with nobody around, an abandoned warehouse area. She landed in an open spot of land that was completely grassless, nothing but dirt and gravel. By this time, it had begun to rain.

She got down on her knees and said "Why was I put here anyway? If there really is a god, and he put humans here, maybe he put the idea into mom's head to make me as well. I'd rather…I'd rather have been more like Armagedroid…than they way I am now. He wasn't made to understand emotional pain."

She thought about it some more, and the more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She was clenching her fist so tightly that she started to damage the joints in her fingers. Her internal motors sped up to maximum speed once again, she raised both arms into the air, and slammed both of her fists onto the ground and screamed as loudly as she could. The force of her fists hitting the ground formed a small crater about seven inches deep and about ten feet wide. She repeatedly screamed and slammed her fists into the ground making the crater wider and deeper and the glass windows of the warehouses shatter. The shaking ground even caused things to fall over such as old doors that were being held up only by severely rusted hinges, old equipment, and other things like portable restrooms.

Unknown to her, someone was in the area, watching her. Her old ex-friend Misty was watching her from a distance. Misty was in her mist form, which made her undetectable to Jenny's sensors.

"I was going to pay you a visit, but I see this isn't an appropriate time. You're in too much pain right now. I want you at full strength when I return so we can settle the score," Misty said as she started leaving the area.

------------------------------------------

"The readings are off the charts once again. It's even worse than before. What is going on in your mind XJ9?" Ms. Wakeman asked as she was looking at the information on the computer monitor.

She sighed and said "Oh, but there's nothing I can do right now. She really wanted space. I just hope she isn't in any real trouble right now."


	13. Chapter 13

"Sir, after a thorough investigation of your computer system, I've discovered that this new data doesn't seem to be causing any harm at all," a male computer engineer said to the company manager.

"That's good news so far, but what have you discovered about the data itself?"

"Well, I don't know exactly what it is or what it's for. I don't even know how it got there in the first place. I do know that it's either some kind of protocol or an executable program. I can't tell for sure because I've tried every trick I know to hack into its data, and nothing has worked so far. I also could be wrong altogether. It could actually just be a huge glitch or scrambled data. It may not be any kind of actual program at all. It's probably better to go ahead and delete it. However, I don't really think that's a good idea. There is one other thing I discovered about it," the engineer explained.

"And what would that be?" The manager asked.

"Well, the program seems to be connected to the main computer and the secondary one as well. It's possible that if someone tries to get rid of it, it might affect both computers at once. It would be very bad if both were to completely shut down," the engineer explained.

"Yes, and the results could be catastrophic. Anyway, if that's all you are able to do, thanks for trying. I'll just have to try someone else," The manager said.

"You're welcome, and good luck on finding anybody who can crack that code," The engineer said.

------------------------------------------

It had been two whole days since Jenny stood up to the Krust's. Most things had returned to normal by then. Most things.

Brad, Sheldon, and Tuck were walking home from school together having a conversation.

"What the hell is going on? Jenny hasn't showed up for school in two days," Brad said worriedly.

"Yeah, and every time we try to go to see Jenny at her house, Ms. Wakeman just tells us to go away," Sheldon added.

"I can't make much sense out of it either. After what you guys said about what happened the other day, I'm surprised she actually went through the trouble of fixing that wall and paying Brit back for her clothes. I think I would've been way too torn up on the inside to bring myself to keep any promises myself. After she did that, it would've seemed like she had gotten over the whole incident. Then she goes and misses two days of school like this. That's not like her at all. She almost never misses even one day," Tuck said.

"Yeah, something is really wrong. I just know it," Sheldon said.

As they passed in front of Ms. Wakeman's house, they heard an explosion about six blocks away directly behind them.

"Hey, isn't that where the jewelry store is?" Brad asked.

"Yeah, that's exactly where that is. Somebody must be trying to rob it," Tuck yelled.

Just then, a window to Jenny's window opened. They all turned around to see if Jenny was getting ready to go handle the situation. Jenny is who they saw, but something about her was…different. They had never seen the expression on her face that were seeing then. It was a mixture of a very angry and a very lifeless expression. It looked as if she no longer cared that the world around her even existed anymore. She activated her rockets and took off towards the scene of the crime. Not saying a word to each other, Brad, Tuck, and Sheldon ran towards the crime scene as fast as they could.

When they finally got there, they could see Jenny standing in the middle of the street in front of the store waiting for the thief to come out from the smoke. The thief finally revealed himself after a few moments. It was none other, than The Lancer.

Floating in the middle of the air with a large bag of jewels in his left hand, he said "Oh, if it isn't you, XJ9. If thou wisheth to keep thy head, thou shalt leaveth at once."

Jenny remained motionless and speechless.

"Interesting. I had hoped for some sort of witty comeback, or at least a threat, but thou seemeth unable to speak. Very well then, if thou haveth nothing to say, then I shall end this quickly," The Lancer said as electricity began concentrating at the end of his lance.

He fired one round at Jenny. As soon as the blast was within one foot of her face, she knocked it straight upwards into the air. The Lancer became angry, and started firing at her repeatedly, but Jenny easily knocked them all away into the air. As soon as The Lancer stopped firing, the colored portion of Jenny's eyes turned completely white, and she charged directly after him at high speed shoulder tackling him sending him flying back into the store.

Jenny followed in after him. Brad, Tuck, and Sheldon could hear the metal armor The Lancer was wearing being torn apart as well as cries for help from The Lancer himself. A minute later, Jenny came out from the smoke holding the little imp sized "man" that The Lancer actually was under the armor in her hands.

"Put me down you metal wench," The Lancer yelled.

Jenny didn't respond at all to his insult. A police car came around a corner at high speed heading towards the crime scene. The officers could see Jenny holding The Lancer in her hands. Jenny was standing in the street again by this time. She held out one hand signaling them to stop their car. They stopped their car, got out ran over to Jenny. Jenny handed them The Lancer and took off heading towards home without saying a word or waiting for a thank you from the police.

"Oh man, Jenny really is not herself today. I'm worried about her you guys," Tuck said.

Both Brad and Sheldon nodded in unison.


	14. Chapter 14

The green computer screen flickered and a line in red read "CONVERSATION CHANNEL OPEN."

Another line in blue then read "Hey, have a look at this. I'm sure you'll find it interesting."

Another line in black then read "This had better be good. I'm kinda busy right now. Hmm…ah ha. Yes, I see what you're saying. This is interesting."

Another line in blue then read "You know what that means, don't you?"

Another line in black then read "Yes I do. This means that our plan should be that much easier to pull off after all."

Another line in white then read "WARNING. INTRUDER ALERT."

Another line in blue then read "Intruder? Now this is unexpected."

Another line in black then read "Let's check the surveillance."

Another line in blue then read "Oh, what do we have here? I don't think it's anything to concern ourselves with. Why don't we just eliminate the intruder."

Another line in black then read "Hold on a second. We could use this to our advantage."

Another line in blue then read "What do you mean?"

Another line in black then read "We could use our guest to add fuel to the fire, if you know what I mean."

Another line in blue then read "Hmm…oh, now I see what you're talking about. That's good thinking actually. Let's go introduce ourselves."

Another line in red then read "CONVERSATION CHANNEL CLOSED."

----------------------------------------

After missing three days of school, Jenny finally returned. If you asked some people though, they would say that she was a different person.

Upon entering Mr. Tier's classroom, the first thing Mr. Tier said was "Oh, your back. What happened to you any…?"

Before completing his question, he stopped because he was surprised to see Jenny's expression. It was the same expression that Brad, Sheldon, and Tuck saw two days before. He completely stopped doing anything at all because he couldn't think of how to react to the situation.

Jenny didn't respond to his question. In fact, it didn't even seem as though she even acknowledged that he was standing there. She just walked over to her seat, sat, and stared straight forward motionless.

"Ms. Wakeman, are you okay? You don't seem like your…" Mr. Tier said.

Jenny cut him off by holding up one hand and saying "No Mr. Tier. I'm not in the mood."

She put her hand back down and continued to stare straight forward the way she was a few moments earlier.

Mr. Tier finally gave in and said "Very well. I'll leave you alone."

When the other students finally entered the classroom, one by one they all had similar reactions upon seeing Jenny's expression. Each time, Mr. Tier signaled each student to leave her alone. When Grace entered the classroom, she had a much stronger reaction when she saw Jenny's expression. She did her best to ignore it and went to her seat. Of course, the biggest reactions were from Brit and Tiff when they entered.

Brit wasn't able to say anything.

"Oh crap, she's back," Tiff said.

Jenny's eyes immediately shifted in their direction. This made Brit flinch. After a few moments of staring at the Krust's, Jenny slowly returned her focus to the front of the classroom. Seeing that Jenny was no longer focused on them, Brit and Tiff finally found the courage to make it to their seats.

For the remainder of the class period, none of the students said a word unless they were spoken to by the teacher.

--------------------------------------------------

During lunch period, Jenny showed up about ten minutes late. When she did show up, almost everybody avoided her as much as possible. They especially didn't want to risk talking to her.

Jenny sat at a table all to herself. Brad didn't show up for school that day for a doctor's appointment, and Sheldon stayed behind in his class to finish an assignment so he wouldn't have to worry about it later.

After sitting there for a few moments, an all too familiar Jason walked into the cafeteria. Only this time, he made no loud obnoxious comment. This was a surprise to everyone, including Jenny, even though she didn't show any signs of acknowledgement.

After getting his food from the serving line, he purposely chose a very long path to getting to his usual table. It seemed as though he was going to walk right past Jenny, but stopped when he got right beside her. This caught almost everybody's attention.

"You know, you made front page in the Tremorton Times again," Jason pointed out.

Getting no response from Jenny at all, Jason said "I guess it was pretty noble of you not to kill Brit."

Jenny still wasn't responsive.

"If it were me, I probably would have. Only, I don't have the inhuman strength that you have. I wouldn't be able to splatter her head all over the place like you could, so for me, a good beating would have to suffice. Personally, after the way they treated you, I think you were far too forgiving. You could've at least broken a bone or two. That would've seemed pretty fair to me at the time. However, I'm not here to instigate any further violence. I don't plan on going to jail over this. If you decide to do it, you should be the only one taking the fall. That would be the only fair thing to happen," Jason said.

As he began to walk away, Jenny said "You are an annoying insect, just like Pteresa said."

Jason stopped again and said with a grin "Well now, an insult. That's pretty unlike you. I'm surprised myself. I was wondering when we'd see this side of you, and now we have. Now life ought to get a little more interesting."

Jenny stared at Jason until he sat in his seat. When she confirmed that he was no longer paying any attention to her, she went back to drinking her can of oil. She was a little surprised to see dents in the can. She didn't even remember squeezing it. A moment later, she just shrugged her shoulders and decided to pay it no more attention as she went back to drinking the remainder of her oil.


	15. Chapter 15

Vexus was scanning through a long list of names she found in a book. She figured that she was having too much trouble figuring out a suitable name for the beetle, so she found a book for help. Plus, she figured that if the bug came from Earth, it should be given an Earthly name.

"Let's see here. Ah ha! How about Roger?" She asked rhetorically.

She stared at the beetle for a moment and said "No, you don't look like a Roger. Continuing on…Joseph, Victor, Hans, Larry, Dudley, Alexander, Sean, Albert, Henry, Boris, Jacques, Mort, Terry, Andy, Ellis, Frank, Abdul, Abraham, Simon, David, Daisuke, Quan, Habib, Harold, Nash, Ian, Gabino, Ichiro, Juan, Garth, Howard, Lamech, Gaston, Francis, Leandro, Leberecht, Ernest, Xavier, Yaakov, Bartholomew, Kyle, Hugo. Hugo? Hmm…I like that name. Yes, I think that's what I'll call you. Hugo it is then. That's what I'll call you from now on," She confirmed.

Relieved that she finally completed that task, she reached over to the rolled up newspaper she found in the middle of a street. After taking the rubber band off and unrolling it, she found a picture of Jenny holding Brit in the air by her Jacket. Of course, she didn't know who this Brit was, neither did she care. This image surprised her more than anything she'd been surprised by in a long time. The title of the article was "XJ9 almost crossed the line."

"Oh my, such terrible rage and hatred in her eyes. This Brittany girl must really be something if she can make XJ9 this angry. I've never even pushed her that far," She said with a grin.

After reading the reason why she almost crossed the line and the little speech she made, Vexus's grin grew even wider until she started laughing.

When she finally stopped laughing she said "So, you're saying that you actually at least once considered handing Earth and its people over to me because they were ungrateful. Well, what did you expect XJ9, that everybody was going to love and absolutely adore you because you saved their lives? I've noticed that humans are some of the most stubborn people in this galaxy. Once they've made up their mind about something, it's almost impossible to change their decision. From my experience, that's the way it is for most of them. In any case, I'm glad to know that you do indeed have a dark side after all. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow is what some of you humans say," She said while flipping through the rest of the pages.

She found that there was nothing else interesting in the newspaper, so she balled it up and threw it out the window.

"It seems as though your problem is getting progressively worse after all," She said.

----------------------------------------------

Ms. Wakeman invited Brad, Sheldon, and Tuck to lunch with her at a local restaurant. She had something to discuss with them

"Listen boys, I'm sorry that I kept shooing you all away from the house. To say that the past few days have been rough would be an understatement," Ms. Wakeman said.

"I can imagine. Jenny really seems like a different person now. You think she'll ever come around and return to being her old self again?" Brad asked hopefully.

"I really hope so myself, but I'm afraid this might be permanent. You don't know what happened after she left you two on that roof, do you?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Well no, but we assumed she went back home," Tuck replied.

"It took me two days to find out myself. I promised XJ9 that I wouldn't look through her private memory files, so trying to find out what cased her anger levels to skyrocket the second time was hard to find out. It was hell just trying to get her to tell me," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"The second time?" Sheldon asked.

"Yes, it happened again. The first time I had to find out from the school principal. The second time however, her anger levels rose to over three times what they were the first time, and lasted for quite a while. When she finally talked to me about it, she didn't tell me what happened directly. She told me to go see for myself," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"See for yourself? What did she do?" Sheldon asked.

"I still can't get over what I saw even a couple of days later. She told me to go to that old abandoned warehouse area about fifty miles south of here. When I got there, the place looked like a bomb had been dropped on it. Somewhere in the middle of the area, there was a crater in the ground almost two hundred feet wide and about twenty feet deep. I know she made that crater by herself because it took me a whole night to repair her damaged arms and hands. That means she was slamming her fists into the ground with all her might over and over again. She strained herself so hard that she completely exhausted her auto repair functions. The force from the ground shaking caused most of the warehouses to cave in or topple over. I never intended for her to put out that much effort in such a short amount of time. Oh, I'm afraid she probably won't recover for a while. She and I both took a big risk by letting her go back to school so soon, but at least she hasn't done anything extreme yet. When I came back home from that dreadful place, she finally told me everything that happened and what she had been thinking. After that, she cried and cried for quite a while. It took all of us to calm her down. When I say all of us, I mean me plus XJ's one through eight," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"But I thought you guys said she told you that she can't cry," Tuck pointed out.

"No, she can't cry the way humans can, but I could tell she was definitely crying in her own way. I'm the one who made her, so I should know. She's become so bitter now though. I never expected that she would change so much. I could just erase that bitterness, but she needs to able to overcome that on her own," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"I really hope that she'll get better soon. If not…" Sheldon said but trailed off before finishing.

Brad knew what he was about to say and was relieved that he didn't. He didn't want the idea that Jenny might decline to the point that she might consider suicide as an option to be on Ms. Wakeman's mind.

"If not what?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"No, it's nothing you need to worry about," Sheldon said hoping she would buy that.

"Okay then, if you say so," Ms. Wakeman said.


	16. Chapter 16

Jenny woke up at around 6:30 am. Normally she would sleep until 7:00 am.

When she realized this, she said "That's strange. Why would I wake up so early? I always wake up around seven."

She sat up in her bed and decided to stare out of the window for a few minutes before getting ready for school. The sun was barely above the horizon. Everything was so quiet and peaceful that it made her feel like falling asleep again.

"Maybe I can sleep for another 30 minutes or so," she said as she set her internal alarm clock for 7:00 am.

Before laying back down, she started to get a strange eerie feeling. For some strange reason everything around seemed to stand out more vividly than it did just a moment before. She assumed it was a calibration problem with her perception functions.

"I'll just ask mom to have a look at me later…" She said before she noticed something in the sky.

She couldn't tell what it was because it because it was too far away. Whatever this object was, it was heading straight downwards. By the time she zoomed in on the object, it was already a few hundred feet from the ground.

Just then all of her internal sensors activated, a red "WARNING" signal started flashing rapidly in the upper right corner of her eyes, and she yelled "Oh no, that's a nuclear bomb."

By the time she yelled that out, it was too late. The bomb had already hit the ground. She had no time to stop it. She couldn't help but wonder why the house's alarms didn't alert her sooner.

The sky lit up a bright red-orange and she yelled "There's no way I can survive that!"

Suddenly the windows in her house shattered and sent her body flying into the wall on the other side of the room. She was actually stuck inside the wall. That's when everything, including her burst into flames. The force of the blast was so strong that she couldn't free herself from the wall she was being pushed against.

She began screaming as loudly as she could because she knew she was about to die and there was nothing she could do about it. The heat instantly stripped all of the blue paint from her body. The last thing she saw was the explosion getting bigger and bigger in the background before her eyes exploded inside of her head from the heat. Still screaming, she slowly waited for her death knowing that everyone else had died before she did.

----------------------------------------

"Wake up! Wake up Jenny!" She heard as she opened her eyes to see a very concerned XJ4 yelling at her.

Jenny jumped up off the floor and looked around frantically as she realized that none of it actually happened.

"Jenny, you were screaming so loudly that the sound was close to putting cracks in the windows. I would really hate to have to clean that up. Anyway, you were just having a nightmare," XJ4 explained.

"Yeah, just a nightmare. That's all it was. Sorry I scared you XJ4," Jenny said.

"That must've been one really terrible nightmare. What was it about?" XJ4 asked.

"Death, and on a massive scale. Someone dropped an atom bomb on the city. The force of the explosion pushed me against the wall and started burning me alive. It all seemed so vivid. I never felt so hopeless in all my life," Jenny explained while still trembling.

"Oh my! That really was a terrible nightmare. Don't worry though, it's over now. Oh, but if you take a look at the TV, you'll see what probably caused that nightmare," XJ4 said while pointing one of her arms at the TV screen.

Jenny looked at the screen to see a show on the discovery channel about the deadliest weapons man has ever created.

"Oh yeah, I remember now. They were talking about the **'unstoppable destructive force of the atom bomb.' **Stupid TV show, scared the hell out of me," Jenny said followed by a growl.

Jenny pushed the off button on the remote. When the TV turned off, she put it down on top of the TV and starting heading towards her room.

XJ4 could see that Jenny's expression returned to its usual bitter one as she was walking up the stairs.

She sighed and said "Three weeks of this. It's just too long to have to wait for you to return to normal. I really miss the old Jenny."

Of course, by this time, Jenny couldn't hear anything XJ4 was saying. XJ4's attention was now focused on the remote that Jenny lay on top of the TV.

"Why is everybody so sloppy all the time? It's supposed to be straight, not diagonal," She said with frustration as she rolled over to the TV.

She picked up the remote and discovered that it had five dents in it in the shape of Jenny's fingers and thumb.

"Well, it looks like we'll have to replace it. It'll look too unsightly sitting up there all dented up like this," She said with disappointment.

Staring at the dents, she thought about the description that Jenny gave her about her nightmare.

After thinking about the description and the events of the past few weeks for a few minutes, she gasped and said "Oh no, Jenny wouldn't really do that, would she?"

Pacing back and forth frantically, she tried to think of something she could do about it.

"I could tell mom about it, but I don't want her to worry any more than she has. Wait…no…our sister is way too strong for that. She would never give up so easily. What was I thinking? That's just silly," She said dismissing the thought altogether.

Trying her best to suppress the thought, she continued with her chores.

-------------------------------------------------

Before going to sleep, Jenny thought about her nightmare some more. Most of her dreams before the incident three weeks ago were good ones. It was only recently that her usually pleasant dreams turned to such scary and frightening nightmares. Life for her seemed to be going further and further downhill. Awake or in her sleep, she was unable to find happiness.

"Honestly, I don't know how much more of this I can take. Why me, why do I have to suffer so much? I thought that I might feel better about myself if I stood up to Brit. When I did, the only thing I really accomplished was making everybody else afraid of me. Now more of them hate me than before. There has to be a way out of this, and I'll find it no matter what," Jenny said.

The images of the atomic explosion from her nightmare kept replaying themselves over and over again in her mind. She still found it amazing that so much power could be unleashed from a small rock.

"This is stupid. I don't know why I'm still worrying about that nightmare. I don't see how it'll help solve my problems," She said before closing her eyes.


	17. Chapter 17

The next day after school, Brad insisted on meeting with Sheldon after school to discuss something very important. He finally managed to convince Sheldon to meet with him in an empty classroom.

"This had better be good Brad, I was planning on meeting with some of the other guys from the science club," Sheldon said.

"Actually, it is important. It's about Jenny. I'm even more worried about her than before," Brad said worriedly.

"Okay, you didn't look this worried just a few minutes ago. This must be serious. What happened this time," Sheldon asked as he started becoming worried himself.

"Just yesterday, Jenny was looking really worried about something. I asked why, and she didn't want to say anything at first, but I eventually got her to tell me what was bothering her. She said she had a nightmare," Brad explained.

"What kind of nightmare?" Brad asked.

"Well, she said that in her nightmare, she woke up earlier than usual and couldn't figure out why. She was getting ready to go back to sleep when she noticed an object falling from the sky. When she finally got a good look at it, she noticed that it was actually an atomic bomb. By that time it was too late for her to do anything about it. It destroyed the city with her in it. After that, she really didn't want to talk about it anymore. She was still looking kind of worried about afterwards. Can you guess why I'm so worried about her now?" Brad asked.

"Yeah, I can guess why. It's as I said before, it's an impossible situation to get out of…if you are that close to the blast. The ideas are already starting to form themselves in her mind. She keeps getting more and more depressed by the day. I didn't really think it would be this quick. It took me half my life to even consider it, and now something in the back of her mind is already giving her ideas on how to do it," Sheldon said.

"What are we going to do? I'm not good with stuff like this," Brad said.

"Neither am I, but we gotta figure out something. The problem is, I just don't know how to go about it. Should we be direct or find a different approach? Maybe we should start by getting advice from someone who's dealt with this kind of thing before," Sheldon suggested.

"Good thinking, but it might be harder than before to find somebody willing to help us if they know they're also helping Jenny. She's not exactly on everybody's good side right now," Brad said.

"Yes, you're definitely right about that, but we can't just sit around and do nothing. We have to try," Sheldon said.

-------------------------------------------

Earlier that day, Jenny had received a phone call from the hospital saying that the young woman that was held hostage by The Mudslinger had finally woken from her coma. Jenny had told them that she had completely forgotten about her because of the events of the past few weeks and that she apologized for not calling.

The woman told the police and the hospital personnel that she had something very important to tell them, and that she would only tell them if Jenny was also present. When she finally had time, Jenny made her way over to the hospital to listen to what the woman had to say.

Jenny walked in through the door of a conference room inside the hospital. A few hospital personnel, eleven officers and the Police Chief was in the room with the woman before Jenny arrived.

"Oh, there you are XJ9. First of all, I want to say thank you to you and everyone else that helped me that day. Second, I want to ask if you've been doing all right. I've heard that things haven't been going so well with you these past few weeks," The woman said.

"No, I'm not doing so well unfortunately. I'll probably talk to you about it later. I don't feel much like discussing the details right now," Jenny explained with the same bitter expression on her face.

"Oh I see. I guess I have kept you all waiting long enough, haven't I? This is about The Mudslinger. I'm sure you've all noticed for a while now that he's much different from the way he used to be. Am I correct?"

"You know, you seem to know a lot about him, and you're really calm, as if you already know what's been taking place over the past few weeks. But yes, you are correct." the Chief said.

"Well yes actually, and no. I really only know what they've been telling me," the woman explained.

"What they've been telling you? But you were asleep the past few weeks. Who are they? I thought it was only The Mudslinger. Are you saying he was working for someone else?" Jenny asked.

"The doctors never did do a thorough check of my body. They only assumed that I had been hit in the head pretty hard and that's what kept me in my coma. The Mudslinger gassed me, knocking me out. He then put a small microchip under my skin behind my ear. It was actually the chip that was keeping me asleep. I'm not sure who the voices I heard coming from the chip were, but they told me a few things. One, this chip will have completely deactivated by the time this meeting will have taken place. Two, they said that I don't need to worry because I'm not their enemy, so the chip can be removed without causing harm to my health. Three, The Mudslinger was only being used as a pawn to get the money to buy a few items that they needed for their plan, and that The Mudslinger is the least of our worries. And four, they said that soon we'll all see the true nature of humanity. And that's it. They told me those four things once every day until they decided to deactivate the chip," the woman explained.

"The true nature of humanity? They must be planning something really big," the police chief said.

"What did these voices sound like?" Jenny asked.

"Robots," the woman answered.

"That's a little too vague," Jenny said.

"I'm sorry; I meant those basic robot voices that computers from the late twentieth century had installed in them. There was no personality in the voices, so trying to figure out who they are would be pretty much impossible," the woman explained.

"I see. Ms. Wakeman, do you know anyone who talks like that? 'Soon you'll see the true nature of humanity.' You know, those kind of outrageous declarations," the chief said.

"About a fourth of the villains I know would say something like that. However, if you narrow it down to which one of them would specifically want to exploit human nature, I'd say about ten of them were like that. So no, at this point, I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly who it is. In fact, it could be some totally new villain altogether," Jenny explained.

"Yes, and if it's an old villain, this one seems to have very carefully thought his or her plan out. They've learned from their past mistakes. If it's a new villain, it seems as though they probably studied the past mistakes of the other villains or they're just that smart," the chief guessed.

"Yep, that pretty much sums it up. They didn't even give us any real clues as to what their plans are. They just said they were going to exploit human nature. That's not specific enough. There are plenty of ways to do that. We don't even know if this plan will have catastrophic results or not. Plus, since there is no personality in those voices, we can't listen for emphasis in particular words. The word humanity is a good example. If it was emphasized with enough anger, it could give a clue as to just how serious this is going to be," Jenny explained.

"Are you sure you don't have any more clues ma'am?" the chief asked.

"I'm sorry. I don't have any more," the woman answered.

"Then again, they did say that The Mudslinger is the least of our worries, so it is probably more serious than they make it seem. I'll try to find out what I can, but whoever these people are, they really know how to cover their tracks. I haven't found even the smallest shred of a clue as to where The Mudslinger went after that day," Jenny explained.

"And neither have we. Villains, surprisingly, aren't usually this smart. Oh, but wait, there is one thing I think you should know. You know that small town about a hundred miles from here surrounded mostly by farmland?" the chief asked.

"Yeah, but what does it have to do with our current problem?" Jenny asked.

"Probably nothing, but there have been reports of strange women with very similar attitudes and fashion sense appearing in town from time to time," the chief said.

"That explanation sounds like nothing important, but if the chief of police is going through the trouble of telling me about it, it must be a little more serious than you make it seem. I wouldn't be too surprised if that woman was Vexus," Jenny said.

"Believe it or not, we were thinking the same thing. However, I said it's probably nothing to worry about. If it is her, she's definitely gone through some changes. She's caused no disturbances of any kind, but she does seem oddly fascinated with bugs," the chief explained.

"Bugs?" everyone else asked in unison.

"A certain librarian said that this strange woman came into the library a few times claiming to be a fashion designer looking for the natural designs of bugs to give her ideas," the chief explained.

"If that really is her, maybe she's finally lost a few screws," Jenny said with a grin.

"I don't know what to make of it myself either. The people who reported seeing these women all said that they looked very familiar and that they started to get an eerie feeling about their very presence even though she's done nothing even remotely wrong," the chief explained.

"Let me guess, they probably also said that they found it strange that people with that kind of money would come to a small town like theirs, right?" Jenny asked.

"Actually yes, they did say that. I guess what got them worried is the fact that they never buy anything. They just show up for a few hours then leave. Then again, it might not even be her at all," the chief said.

"Maybe, but Vexus has always been a little strange. I wouldn't be too surprised if her mind is finally gone or something. She is over two-thousand years old after all. Her warranty probably expired a while ago," Jenny said.

"Wow, I didn't realize she was that old," a doctor said.

"Yes she is. It's not something that's usually announced, so that's why most people don't know that, but it's true," the chief explained.

"Anyway, it's most likely not very important. She's not even a challenge to me anymore. Without an army to back her up, she wouldn't stand a chance in a fight with me. From what the people said, she doesn't seem to be up to anything that we need to worry about anyway. I'll check it out if anything ever happens. Strange women and one with a fascination with bugs isn't something worth looking into for the time being," Jenny said.

"That's fine for now. I just thought I'd let you know. We'll do what we can to find information on the mysterious people and The Mudslinger. We trust that you'll do what you can as well," the chief said.

"Yeah, I'll do what I can. For now though, I have homework to do," Jenny said as she left the room.


	18. Chapter 18

You can only imagine how frustrated most of the other students usually are at the fact that Jenny can finish assignments at least fifty times faster than they could. Most humans would agree that their natural limitations are very difficult to live with everyday. Jenny was finished with all of her assignments in only seven and a half minutes. That may seem fast to us, however…

"What is wrong with me? I can usually get these stupid assignments done in half that amount of time. I'm getting slow," Jenny said staring at her right hand with apparent frustration in her eyes.

She knew very well the reason why she was slowing down. Being burdened with the thoughts of everything that had happened to her over the past few weeks was taking its toll. She knew very well the reason, but she was just too proud to admit it, even to herself.

She then thought about what the woman from the hospital said earlier that day.

"Something's definitely not right about her. She was way too calm when she gave us that explanation. Since when is anyone that content with the idea that someone is planning on doing something that could hurt a lot of people?" Jenny asked herself.

She thought about it some more, and then said "Come to think of it, I might be that way myself. Normally, I would rush off as fast as I could to find out more information, but I didn't. I treated it as if it wasn't serious at all. Maybe…maybe deep down inside…I want this. Maybe…maybe I don't really care what happens to them. They never really seem to care what happens to me, so why should I care about their fate?"

Continuing to stare at her right hand, she balled it into a tight fist and said "Why should I care; because I devoted myself to it. I promised mom, and I promised myself that I'd protect you ungrateful bastards."

She loosened her fist and let it drop onto the bed and said "I only really wanted one thing, to be able to live among you all, and to be accepted as a true member of your society. Was that really too much for me to ask? I wonder…if you people really want me gone that badly…then maybe I…then maybe I should be."

Jenny knew that what she was considering was wrong. In fact, she strongly disagreed with that course of action more than most things. Only, at this point, she felt as though she was running out of options.

"What the hell is the point of living if there is never any hope of getting what you want?" she asked herself as her voice began to tremble.

----------------------------------------

This time, it was XJ6's turn to do the cleaning chores around the house. She was walking past Jenny's room when she heard a faint noise that she felt necessary to check out. She was about to knock on Jenny's door, but stopped when she heard sobbing coming from inside the room.

"_She's crying again. I really wish she would just get over it already. This has been going on for far too long now. Our sisters and I learned to accept the fact that we weren't meant to fit in a long time ago, so why can't you? That's it, I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind_," she thought to herself.

She reached for the door handle, but stopped half way and thought to herself "_I can't do it. Man I hate having a sensitive side sometimes_."

She walked away from Jenny's room frustrated that she couldn't bring herself to be that harsh with her sister.

--------------------------------------------

The company manager entered his office where a man that he was expecting to meet with was already waiting for him.

"Ah yes, Mr. Green. I've been needing to talk to you," the manager said.

"Well then, let's get straight to the point, shall we? I really do have other arrangements for this evening," Mr. Green said.

"All right then. Basically, we have a problem with our computer system," the manager said.

"A problem? What kind of problem?" Mr. Green asked.

"At this point, we aren't actually sure it can really be defined as a problem, but we are definitely concerned about it. One of our engineers discovered some new data that, despite ours and several other experts' best efforts, have not been able to determine what the data is or how it got there in the first place," the manager explained.

Mr. Green paused for a moment, and then said "Hmm…interesting. Well, what do you want me to do about it?"

"I was actually hoping you'd have a solution," the manager said.

"Yes, that would be the reason you called me over here, wouldn't it? How about this; I will take a look at it myself first, and if I can't figure it out, I will call someone else who just happens to be more talented than I," Mr. Green suggested.

"You are the one with the connections," the manager said.

"I guess you can put it that way. I will take a look at, but I can't today. I will do that tomorrow. But seriously, why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" Mr. Green asked.

"Well, I know that you are a busy man, and I was confident that we could figure it out on our own. Only, as you can plainly see, that didn't exactly work out so well," the manager explained.

"I see. I will take a look at it sometime between one and three tomorrow," Mr. Green said as he prepared to leave the room.

"Can I ask you something?" the manager asked.

"Go ahead," Mr. Green said.

"I hope you won't think I'm intruding by asking this, but why do you always seem so nervous?" the manager asked.

"Do I really seem nervous to you?" Mr. Green asked.

"Yes, actually. You always just kind of look that way. No offense," the manager explained.

"Hmm…that's odd. No, I'm not nervous. In fact, I'm rarely nervous about anything. What do I have to be nervous about?" Mr. Green asked.

"I wouldn't really know. Anyway, it's not that important. I was just curious, that's all," the manager replied.

"Very well then. I guess I will see you tomorrow," Mr. Green said as he left the office.

"_I swear, that guy always gives me the creeps, every time I see him. He always seems to have an eerie aura surrounding him so thick that I can almost taste it. It's probably just my imagination though_," the manager thought to himself.


	19. Chapter 19

Brad and Sheldon both sought help from several doctors only to receive useless advice when they realized that they were actually helping Jenny. It was basically an indirect rejection. They gave advice because they couldn't just refuse to help, but it wasn't very helpful.

After trying repeatedly for three days, they were just about to give up hope when…

"Please doc, Jenny's our friend. We really need your help. We've already tried a lot of the other doctors in the area and all of them gave us pointless advi…" Sheldon pleaded.

"I understand already. Please, not so loud. Let me get to the point. Honestly, I don't really like her either. However, I would never use that as an excuse not to help somebody in need, unlike the other so-called doctors you just described. And no, please don't give me their names. I don't want to start anything with them. Now are you really convinced that she is considering committing suicide?" the doctor asked.

"We're not absolutely certain if she's considered it yet, but so far, the signs seem to be pointing towards it," Brad answered.

"What exactly are these signs?" the doctor asked.

"She's becoming more and more miserable by the day. She keeps mumbling to herself about how everybody hates her and why does she even bother trying anymore. She's even started to push everybody away from her, including her family and her few friends every time we try to talk to her. Plus, she keeps having horrible nightmares about being killed in impossible to escape situations as if her subconscious is giving her ideas on how to kill herself," Sheldon explained.

After thinking about Sheldon's explanation for a moment, he finally said "What you're telling me isn't quite solid enough, but if she keeps getting worse, it could eventually lead to suicide. I've already dealt with two other cases similar to this one throughout my career. Would I be correct in saying that even though she is a robot, her mind operates basically the same as a human's?" the doctor asked.

"Yes. Well…her processing power is many times that of a human's, but her decision making abilities are only about zero point twelve percent different from a human's, which is barely noticeable," Sheldon explained.

"If that's the case, then it probably is something to be concerned about. I'm pretty sure that if Ms. Wakeman was going to erase her depression, she would've done that already, am I correct?" the doctor asked.

"Yeah, she said she wanted Jenny to overcome it on her own. Erasing it would be too convenient," Brad explained,

"I guess that makes sense. Well, that throws that suggestion out the window. This is never a very easy problem to solve. What's going to have to happen is that someone needs to get her to either look for another purpose in life besides trying to be popular and fit in or find another approach to fitting in. I can imagine that convincing her that fitting in isn't the most worthwhile goal will be tough, but you might just have to do that. If she tries to push you away, you should try that much more. Whatever you do to try to calm her down, you'll have to be persistent in your efforts. She thinks everybody hates her, so try to show her that there are those that really do care about her. Her problem is that she seems to want too much too quickly. Her goal at this point is kind of unrealistic, and she needs to realize it, accept it, and learn to be happy with what little she can get in life. We all have to do it to some degree ourselves, wouldn't you agree?" the doctor asked.

"Yeah, but she tends to have a real listening problem. Your suggestion sounds good, but you're suggesting that we attempt something that's nearly impossible," Brad said.

"True, but the alternative is actually telling her that you're trying to prevent her from committing suicide, and believe it or not, sometimes that makes them want to do it even more. It's most likely going to be a difficult and risky process no matter which way you look at it. Even as a doctor, I can't just wave a magic wand and make these kinds of problems disappear. It would be difficult even for me to try to help her directly. In fact, it would probably be even more difficult for me since I'm not as close to her as you two are. At this point, you'd have a better chance of succeeding than me," the doctor explained.

"Okay then, thanks for the advice. We'll do what we can, and if we need more advice, we'll ask you then," Sheldon said.

"Yeah, thanks," Brad said.

"You're welcome, and don't hesitate to come see me should you need help," the doctor said.

"You're treating us mighty nicely for someone who doesn't really like Jenny," Brad said.

"I figured that she can't possibly be all bad if there is somebody out there like you two who doesn't think so. I guess a lot of us old dogs really do need to learn some new tricks. We should learn to be a little more tolerant," the doctor said.

---------------------------------------------

Vexus was frustrated with some things that she was starting to realize; things about humans, and things about herself.

It was a strange little situation that happened about a week before. It all started when she was in town in the middle of the night looking for supplies. By looking for supplies, I mean she was preparing to steal them. She was on her way to the town's only auto supply store, which luckily for her, didn't have a very good security system.

About three blocks away from the store, she heard some footsteps and heavy breathing running in her direction from behind. Humans may not be a match for her, but she didn't take the chance of trying to find out whether the humans were heavily armed or not. Looking back on it, she realized that the chances that they would have been heavily armed were very low.

The first thing she did was run for about a block then slipped into an ally hoping that they didn't see her go in because it was so dark. She couldn't figure out why she was so afraid at that moment. They were only humans after all.

Sure enough, they followed her into the alley.

"Shit," she whispered loudly as she continued running from them.

After turning three corners, she ended up in the worst place imaginable, a dead end. She turned preparing to fight. The first thing she saw was a teenage girl being chased after by a group of four men. She realized then that she wasn't being chased after at all, this young girl was being chased.

The young girl stopped, realizing that she was also at a dead end, and that there was someone else there already. She turned to face her pursuers alongside Vexus terrified.

None of the humans could recognize Vexus under the cloak she was wearing, but they could tell that she was a woman.

"Well, what do we have here? We were after one girl, but I see that we're getting two for the price of one," one of the men said.

"Don't worry lady; we don't plan on raping you. You see, we need to pay that little bitch back for ruining one of Gary's eyes," another man said as he pointed to a larger man with an eye patch over his right eye.

"However, since you happen to be a witness to what we're about to do to that bitch, we can't exactly let you live," Gary said angrily.

"Why the hell did you do that to his eye anyway?" Vexus asked the girl.

"They…they tried to rape me before…and I…" the girl explained.

Gary cut her off by saying "And you stabbed me in the eye with a fucking screwdriver. I'm going to kill you first, then that other lady. Time go to sleep."

Gary pulled a hand gun with a silencer on it out of his pocket and pointed it at the young girl. Without thinking about what she was doing, Vexus pushed the young girl out of the way as the trigger was being pulled. Bullets from an ordinary handgun were usually never anything to worry about unless…

"_What are the chances? The bullet is lodged directly into the weakest point of my shoulder joint_," Vexus thought to herself as she started holding the right shoulder of the now mostly useless right arm with her left hand.

"I really gotta hand it to ya. You somehow managed to save that girl's life for a few more moments. Not only that, you must be made of something tough if you took a bullet and didn't start crying out in pain," Gary said as he prepared to fire again.

"Oh trust me, you're the one who's going to be crying out in pain," Vexus yelled.

Using her left arm, Vexus knocked the gun out Gary's hand then punched him in the stomach, all in less than a second. Gary fell to his knees in horrible agony.

"Oh I see, you're in so much pain right now that you can't cry out," Vexus said.

She kicked Gary in the face knocking him out. For a moment, everyone stared at her in shock. The other three men then pulled out there gun's ready to fire. One by one, the other three men met a similar fate as Gary. In the end, Vexus rendered all of the men unconscious.

"They won't be getting up for quite some time," Vexus declared.

"Thank you so much," the young girl yelled.

Vexus turned to face the young girl with a very shocked expression her face. She wanted to find a way of saying that she wasn't trying to save her, that she wasn't trying to save a human, but she couldn't think of a convincing way to deny it.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Vexus asked the girl puzzled as the girl was pulling something out of a large bag that she was carrying on her back.

"You're a robot right?" the girl asked.

Vexus tried to think of a way to deny that too, but she was unable to think of anything to get around that fact because she wasn't really prepared for that kind of question.

"You don't have to worry; I'm not going to tell anybody if you're worried about being discovered. I could hear your arm grinding against the bullet, so I assumed that you are a robot. I know that you're arm is damaged, and I think I might be able to fix it," the girl said as she pulled some tools out of her bag.

"Well, I guess the tools needed to pull the bullet out are pretty expensive. If I get it done here, I won't have to worry about the expenses. Seriously though, can you really do that, a girl your age?" Vexus asked.

"Hey, I might only be thirteen, but I'm already able to build and repair certain types of robots. Besides, I'm only doing this for free because you saved me," the girl said.

After getting the tools she thought she needed out of the bag, she grabbed a few and walked over to Vexus.

"Let me see the damaged area," the girl said.

Vexus pulled back her cloak just enough to reveal her arm. After only a moment of inspecting her arm, the girl back away frightened.

"You're…you're Vexus," the girl said in a surprised tone.

"You could actually tell from only seeing my arm and in this dim light. You're good," Vexus commented.

Before the girl had a chance to scream for help, Vexus was already behind the girl with one hand over the girl's mouth.

"Seriously, I'm begging you, please don't scream. I realize I'm in no position to be trusted, but I need you not to reveal my location to anyone, especially not to XJ9. I don't have an army to command anymore, so I couldn't launch an attack on you humans even if I wanted to. I've been hiding for months now just trying to survive. I basically have nothing now. I'm no longer a threat. So please, I'm really begging you, don't scream," Vexus pleaded.

The girl finally calmed down some and Vexus slowly let her go.

The girl then angrily said "Why should I try to protect you? After all the horrible things you've done to us, I should let the whole world know where you are right now. You don't deserve any favors."

"I'm aware of that. I wouldn't want to show you any mercy either if you were the one that tried to enslave my race," Vexus said.

"Under your command, over three hundred thousand people were murdered during the first intergalactic war. Over four hundred thousand were enslaved. If it weren't for the fact that Armagedroid was used so soon after the start of the war, we would've lost more, probably billions more. Do you have any idea how devastated all those families were? I find it really fucking amazing that you actually have the nerve to ask for mercy right now. What did you say to those people…all those people who begged for their lives in vain?" the girl asked.

"I said many things, but nothing that even closely resembled showing any mercy. I'll be honest, that's what I did. I'm guilty of every charge. I can't deny any of it. I realize that asking for your help will probably be fruitless, but I'm trying anyway," Vexus pleaded.

The girl sighed and asked "If you're so evil, why did you save my life?"

Vexus paused for a moment then said "I…I really don't know."

"I must admit, that is strange. You never showed even the slightest bit of mercy for any human before, but you showed me mercy. If it weren't for you, I'd most likely be dead," the girl said.

Vexus stared at the girl with a shocked and confused expression speechless.

"Wow, the time you've spent here has really done something to you," the girl said.

"Done what? What are you talking about?" Vexus asked.

"_If she hasn't figured it out already, that means that something in her mind refuses to admit it to her, or she's having trouble recognizing it_," the girl thought to herself.

"I'm not really sure, but that's not the most important thing right now. I don't know why, but you do seem sincere about not being a threat. I'm about to do something that I'll probably regret. All right, I'll help you this time. As long as you don't try anything, I won't give away your location either. You saved me, and I'll return the favor. It's only fair," the girl said.

"Really, you're actually going to help me?" Vexus said surprised.

"This doesn't mean that I forgive you. I'm really only doing this because you saved my life. By the way, my name is Charlotte," Charlotte said.

After fixing Vexus's arm, Charlotte left the area and headed for home. Vexus also headed for home, after taking the oil that she came to town for. Luckily for her, Charlotte didn't know why she was out that night. Since then, Vexus couldn't get that night out of her mind.

"Why, why did I decide to save her life? I don't understand this at all. First I spare Hugo, then Charlotte, a human no less. What exactly is happening to me?" Vexus said.


	20. Chapter 20

Recently, Jenny started having a new problem. It didn't seem especially serious though, but it was a little annoying. Her problem was Jason.

It used to be that he would rarely even look at her, but things have been different lately. During lunch period, on a daily basis, Jason would constantly bring back the subject of why she didn't punish the Krust's more severely. Only, he would do it indirectly. He would describe the situation in different ways each time, but would never use Jenny's or the Krust's names. After the first few days, everyone else had caught on to what he was really talking about, when they thought that what he was saying was only random nonsense at first.

Today, several people, including Jenny, were impatiently waiting for Jason to say something again. So far, after ten minutes passed, he said nothing.

Unable to continue waiting, Jenny finally said quite loudly "Well, let's hear it Jason."

"Hear what?" Jason asked.

"Aw, come on. You know very well what I'm talking about," Jenny said.

"Umm…I'm sorry, but I'm completely lost," Jason said.

Jenny clenched her right fist, growled, and then said "You've been doing it every day for four days now. You keep talking about the fact that I showed mercy to Brit and Tiff."

"I never said anything like that. I was just spouting random nonsense, that's all. Isn't that similar to what annoying little insects do. You know, fly around in crazy random directions aimlessly, irritating that hell out of anyone they come close to. Since I am only an annoying insect to you people, I figured you wouldn't really notice it much, and then try your best to ignore me," Jason explained.

Before Jenny was able to say anything, a male student said "Dude, cut the crap. We could see right through that pretty easily. Why are you trying to provoke her anyway? If you get her angry, she might do more damage than before."

"Hah, and you think you didn't just make her angrier with that she might do more damage than before comment?" Jason said.

The male student looked at Jenny and discovered that he did manage to make her angrier. He covered his mouth realizing that he shouldn't have said that.

"Before you make an argument, you might want to really think about what you're saying before you say it," Jason said.

"What kind of game are you playing anyway? Until that incident, you never said anything to me directly, and now all of a sudden you're so interested in me. Not only that, I used to actually admire you for the fact that you would stand up for people sometimes. What the hell happened to you anyway?" Jenny asked.

Jason put his milk carton down and said "Really? Stand up for people? Is that what you thought I was doing?"

"What?" Jenny asked with a confused expression.

"Well, I guess you can sort of say that's what I was doing. That was however, in no way, my primary intention. I like to call it indirect instigation. Now are you starting to get the picture? Give them a few ideas on how to exact their revenge and they might just do it. For me, it makes things more interesting, and I get to see my enemies beaten up without ever having to lift a finger. I'm pretty sure you heard me when I told the Krust cousins 'Oh, not much; just the fact that she's probably going to snap and kill you both one of these days' that day even though you were outside the cafeteria. I know you can here shit that we inferior humans can't," Jason said.

"You must've picked now to show this side of yourself, especially since none of the teachers happen to be around at the moment," Jenny pointed out.

"You're pretty smart. I'm surprised you noticed that. To tell you the truth, I normally don't give people the idea to kill their enemies, but I simply can't stand those damned Krusts," Jason said.

Jason pointed his finger at the Krusts and yelled "I don't hurt easily, but the things you've said to and about me were bad enough to make me want to see you two die in a rather gruesome fashion. I didn't kill you myself because I'd go to prison for it. So to let you know how I feel about you two, I hope you both get killed, and soon. Jenny might have shown you mercy, but if I had decided to fight you that day, I would have shown none. You don't deserve it."

Brit was speechless, but Tiff said "I see. Now you let us know. I've been waitin' for somebody to be that honest, but I didn't know it would take this long."

After a moment of silence Jason said "Hmm…it just seemed like you were going to say something else."

Both Brit and Tiff hung their heads down and Tiff said "Nope, that's it."

Another moment of silence passed, and then Jason said "And you Jenny, I know you want to see Brit dead. You said so yourself after all. In fact, I'm sure most of the people in this school want to see them dead as well. But no Jason, we're not like that. I know they said some messed up shit about us, but we don't want to actually see them die. Ha, don't make me laugh. I've seen the looks on your faces. It was the same look Jenny had when she attacked. It was the face of a cold-blooded killer that I saw each time. I wouldn't mistake that look for anything else."

At this point, Jenny's whole body was trembling with anger.

"You are trying your hardest not to attack me right now. I can tell. You're trying to salvage what little bit of popularity you have left. If you ask me, you don't really have any left, and you have virtually no chance of ever regaining it. Honestly, why do you care so much about something as stupid as popularity anyway? It's a great waste of time in my opinion," Jason said.

Jenny was even angrier now. She was angry at Jason, and in a way, she knew he was right about one thing; she most likely had no chance of ever regaining the little popularity she once earned.

Jenny opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't find the right words. After a little more than ten seconds of trying to think of something to say, she finally gave up and stomped her way out of the cafeteria with Brad following behind her.

A few seconds later, the male student from earlier stood up and said "Dude, I think you went way too far. What the fuck is wrong with you anyway?"

"I don't think I went far enough. She needs to understand reality a little better. She might appear as mature as some of us do, but her views on life are like that of young kid. She needs to realize that life isn't some happy little dream world. She needs to learn to accept the fact that she didn't have much of a chance of becoming popular in the first place. Her goal is unrealistic. She was just unfortunate enough to have been built in a time where intelligent robots are new and unusual things that humans just aren't ready for. New and unusual things are often hated and despised. That's the way it goes, doesn't it?" Jason asked rhetorically.

Jason got up and left the cafeteria as well. The other students remained speechless for a little while longer as they contemplated what Jason said.


	21. Chapter 21

There was a distress signal coming from the town that Vexus was thought to probably be located in. It took several minutes for Ms. Wakeman to convince Jenny to go since she was so angry. Exactly why Jenny gave in to her mother's request, at this point, even she wasn't sure.

When she finally arrived at the police station in the town, upon landing, the officers took a few steps away from her when they saw the horribly angry look on her face.

"So then, what exactly happened here?" Jenny asked.

"Oh, right, we heard several huge explosions coming from an area several miles from town. The sounds of the explosions were faint, so we didn't believe it at first. When we got a call from the boys at the watch tower, they said they could see smoke rising into the sky from the woods. And well, the smoke cloud has been getting bigger ever since," a female officer explained.

"Smoke cloud? I don't remember seeing a smoke cloud," Jenny said as she looked in the direction the officers were pointing.

Surprised at what she saw, she said "How did I miss that? I was pointed in that direction when I was flying here. Wait, never mind that. How come you all haven't gone out there yourselves yet?"

"We're still waiting for the fire department to accompany us. The mayor wanted us to go there at the same time. We haven't had to respond to a fire emergency in so long that some of their equipment stopped working from not being used. They have to get spare equipment from the other side of town. We'll be heading to the fire in about ten minutes," another officer explained.

Jenny tried to take flight, but found it really difficult for some reason.

"_It's as if I no longer have the will_," she thought to herself.

"Are you alright? You don't look so good," one officer asked.

"I…don't know," Jenny replied.

Complete silence followed Jenny's reply for a moment before she forced herself to take flight. The officers watched as she disappeared into the background.

"You think it was a good idea to ask for her help? I've never seen her like that before," A male officer said.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," The female officer said.

-------------------------------------

The view from the sky was surprising. When they said explosions, Jenny assumed that these explosions were caused by gas lines exploding or something similar.

"This definitely looks like Vexus's handy work, but there are no signs of her now. She must've left. All right then, activating GPS. I need to find a nearby lake. This fire will take a lot of time to put out, time that I really don't feel like spending here," she said.

All of a sudden, her sensors detected signs of life inside the barn. She rushed in to find a human, but only found a large beetle in a glass pot.

"What the hell, a beetle? A big beetle. You are a living creature, so I can't just let you burn alive in here," Jenny said as she opened her chest plate and put the beetle inside.

After closing her chest plate, she double checked for signs of life to find nothing. After that, she left the house heading towards a large nearby pond her GPS navigator located. When she arrived, she realized that the amount of water in the pond was not quite enough to put out all of the fire, but it was enough to keep the fire from spreading by setting up a perimeter.

After setting up the perimeter, she landed in a place that wasn't burning and began staring at the inferno.

"This kinda reminds me of that nightmare," she said as she remembered the nuclear blast.

She found it all to be a little strange. Her nightmare was frightening, but seeing similar destruction in real life, at that moment, actually made her feel at peace.

"This out of control blaze, it's so violent, but I feel so calm. I guess I should be worried, but for some reason…I'm not," She said as she started smiling.

To her, the blaze seemed as if it was actually the same fire that was raging inside her, but manifested in physical form. Completely captivated by the hypnotic sea of reds, oranges, and yellows, she completely lost track of time.

When the police and fire department arrived, they began preparing to put out the fire. One of the policemen ran over to Jenny from behind wondering why she was standing there like a statue. When he got within five feet of her, he saw that she wasn't so statue-like after all. Her entire body was trembling.

"Ms. Wakeman, why are you just standing there like that? You know it's dangerous to be this close to the flame, don't you?" the officer yelled.

He didn't receive a response from her at all. He walked around to see her face, and was shocked by what he saw. By this time, she was no longer smiling, she was crying. No tears were coming from her eyes, but he could tell she was definitely crying.

Unsure how to handle this kind of situation, the officer yelled "Hey, I think we have a problem over here."

When two of the other officers arrived, the female officer from earlier asked "What's the problem?"

The male officer pointed at Jenny signaling the female officer to see for herself. When the other two officers walked around to see Jenny's face, they had basically the same reaction as the first officer had.

The female officer asked "Ms. Wakeman, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

She received no response either. It was as if Jenny didn't even know they were standing there. Jenny continued to stare directly into the blaze.

The female officer placed her hands on Jenny's shoulders and shook her lightly saying "Jennifer, please, you need to snap out of it and get away from the flames. I don't know what you see in those flames that's making you so sad, but they'll soon be put out, and you won't have to fear them anymore."

Jenny's eyes focused on the female officer, and then she asked in a trembling voice "If it's something to be afraid of, it has no place in this world…does it?"

After realizing why she asked that question, none of the officers could think of anything to say to her. They remained silent.

Jenny then raised her voice some and asked "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Listen Jenn…" the female officer said.

Jenny cut the officer off by yelling "They fear the fire, so they want it put out. They fear it, so they want it to just…disappear."

Filled with rage and sadness, Jenny removed the officer's hands from her shoulders and took off flying into the air as fast as she could. Not looking back, she quickly disappeared from sight.

"I have a bad feeling about this. I think we should call her mom as soon as possible," The other male officer suggested.

"Yeah, in fact, I'll do that now. As soon as I'm done with the call, I'll help you guys with the fire," The female officer said as she quickly ran to the car.


	22. Chapter 22

One of the company's employees came running in through the manager's office door. He looked nervous, and he had several documents in his hands.

"What is it Wayne?" the manager asked.

"Here, see for yourself sir," Wayne said frantically as he handed the manager the thick stack of documents.

Each of the document were actually faxes from different several other companies in Tremorton and from other major cities around the world. Every one of them contained basically the same message. They all said that the same mysterious data was not only in this company's computer system, but also in most of the computer systems around the world.

"How did this happen? How did it end up in that many computers?" The manager asked surprised.

"No one knows sir. Nobody can figure it out. By the way, did you notice the pattern?" Wayne asked.

After sorting through the documents for a minute, he finally realized what the connection was.

"This is bad. This is very bad. That's it; as much as I hate to do it, we need to contact her as soon as possible," the manager said.

* * *

Brad, Sheldon, and Tuck were all at Ms. Wakeman's house preparing to tell her that they think Jenny might be considering the unthinkable. It was especially difficult since they had to tell Tuck first. Now they have to tell Ms. Wakeman.

Ms. Wakeman knew something was terribly wrong just from the expressions on the three boy's faces. Before they had a chance to explain anything, Ms. Wakeman's cell phone rang.

"Hold on just a moment boy's," Ms. Wakeman said as she accepted the call.

The phone's speaker was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear the entire conversation.

"This is the Wakeman residence," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Yes, this is Officer Cole. I'm calling about your daughter," Officer Cole said nervously.

"Did something happen to her?" Ms. Wakeman asked with a very concerned tone.

"She's fine physically, but emotionally…well…I don't think she's doing so well," Officer Cole explained.

"Please, tell me exactly what happened," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Before I explain, did she come home yet? I know she could've gotten there by now as fast as she was moving. I tried to call a few minutes ago, but there was a lot of interference," Officer Cole explained.

"No, she didn't come home yet," Ms. Wakeman said growing even more nervous.

"I was afraid of that. She went ahead of us to try to put out as much of the fire as she could before we arrived with the fire trucks. When we got there, we found out that she was able to set up a perimeter with some water to keep the fire from spreading. When we noticed that Jennifer was standing in one spot close to the flames staring directly into them, we became really concerned. When we saw her from her front, we realized she was crying. When we told her that she wouldn't have to fear the flames anymore when we put them out, she said something completely unexpected," Officer Cole explained.

"Please tell me, what did she say?" Ms. Wakeman asked impatiently.

"Well, it was actually a question that she asked. She asked us 'If it's something to be afraid of, it has no place in this world…does it?" Officer Cole explained.

"Oh no, I really don't like where this is going. Did she say anything else?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Yes. We couldn't think of an answer for her, so then she raised her voice and asked "I'm right, aren't I?" I tried to say something to her, but she cut me off and yelled "They fear the fire, so they want it put out. They fear it, so they want it to just…disappear." We're positive she was comparing herself to the fire. I don't think I need to explain to you what we fear this might lead to, do I?" Officer Cole explained.

"Either XJ9 is thinking of running away, or…even worse," Ms. Wakeman guessed as she realized what the boys came over to talk to her about by looking at their faces.

"We're completely tied up with trying to put this fire out, so I'm really sorry that we can't help you right now. I sincerely hope that you can contact Jennifer and sort this mess out before something serious happens. Again, I'm really sorry that we can't help right now. I gotta go," Officer Cole said.

"Okay then, I'll talk to you later. Bye bye," Ms. Wakeman said before ending the call.

Ms. Wakeman spent the next few moments speechless and trembling violently.

She finally looked up at the boys and asked "So, when exactly did you start suspecting that Jenny was considering this?"

"If anyone's to blame here, it's me. I'm the one who kept insisting that we not tell you about his sooner. We didn't want you to worry so much. To tell you the truth, I was the first person to suspect it. I could recognize signs of it from when I was ready to commit suicide a few years ago. It didn't seem that serious at first, and I never would've guessed that she would've progressed to this point so quickly. We didn't tell Tuck about it until we got home from school. Now that we waited so long to say something, we might be too late to do anything about it," Sheldon explained as his voice started trembling more and more.

"Are you two positive everything he said is true?" Ms. Wakeman asked loudly.

"All of it is true," Brad confirmed.

"Yeah," Tuck added.

"Did Jenny ever tell you guys about her nightmare?" asked someone from across the room.

They all looked to see XJ4 standing at the doorway to the kitchen with a sad expression on her face.

"Oh, it's you XJ4. You heard our conversation, didn't you?" Sheldon asked.

XJ4 nodded her head, and then Sheldon said "Well yes actually. I was just about to say something about that before you walked in. Basically, she had a nightmare where an atom bomb destroyed the city with her in it. I know she can't self-terminate directly, but she can put herself in impossible to escape situations," Sheldon explained.

"So her conscious was giving her ideas on just how to do it," Ms. Wakeman said.

XJ4 rolled up in front of Ms. Wakeman and said "I'm…really sorry…I didn't say anything sooner. I know how much she means to you."

Ms. Wakeman hugged XJ4 and said "Don't you ever think that way XJ4. All of you are just as important to me as XJ9. We can't focus on that right now though, we need to find out what she's really trying to do. So, will you help me in any way you can?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Yes, I will," XJ4 said.

"All right then, first, I need you to go wake up all of your sisters. I don't know how serious this is going to become, or if I'll need you all to do anything at all right now, but I need all of you to be ready just in case. It's time they know everything that's been happening," Ms. Wakeman said.

XJ4 nodded and said "I understand. I'll let them all know right now."

XJ4 turned around and headed for the basement as quickly as she could. Ms. Wakeman headed for the computer room and the others followed behind her.

When Ms. Wakeman tried to contact Jenny, she got no response. She then input a code to force Jenny's communicator to activate.

"I know you can hear me XJ9, answer me," Ms. Wakeman yelled.

Jenny still refused to respond.

"The boys and Officer Cole told me everything XJ9. It's no longer a secret. I know that you are torn up on the inside right now, and I also know you are planning something drastic; otherwise you would've come home. What are you planning on doing?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Jenny, please come home," Tuck yelled.

One by one the other XJs made their way into the computer room as quickly as possible. XJ8 was carrying XJ1 in her hands.

"XJ9, I hope that you are not planning on doing what we think you are," XJ8 said in her usual deep robotic monotone voice.

"Whatever I'm planning on doing, I'm making sure none of you can follow me. I've already removed both tracking devices and the remote control receiver so you can't force my body to fly back home. Say what you want to, but I officially just don't give a shit anymore. Don't bother trying to convince me to come home either, it won't do you any good," Jenny said before she pulled the communicator out of her body, crushed it in her hand, and dropped it into the woods under her.

The only thing Ms. Wakeman's computer was receiving now was static. Ms. Wakeman pushed the off button on the communicator. Complete silence followed for a moment before XJ1 starting crying. Most of the others felt like crying, but held it in.

"Dammit. Why does she have to be this way? She's the most efficient of all of the XJs, but she's also the most irrational. Oh, I'm afraid it's going to be very difficult, if not impossible to find her now. If only I had been more strict, and kept the device I once used to track her energy signature. I destroyed it because she insisted on having her freedom. I swear, she just makes me so angry sometimes," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Actually, I have a way to find her," Sheldon said.

"How?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"I have my own device for tracking energy signatures, Jenny's most specifically," Sheldon said nervously.

Since everyone knew of Sheldon's obsession of Jenny, they all gave him a glare, even XJ1.

"You would, wouldn't you? So just where is this device?" XJ5 asked.

"Well, I guess there's no getting around it anymore. It's inside Silver Shell," Sheldon said.

"Let me get this straight, you built Silver Shell?" XJ7 asked.

Sheldon blushed and said "Yeah, I guess I did."

"I remember now, you did build him. I just forgot all about it," Tuck explained.

"Well, that's one of life's mysteries solved. Well, what are you waiting for? Use it to find her," Ms. Wakeman said.

"There's one small problem. I only designed it for short range tracking, about 10 miles to exact. Plus, it has a few bugs," Sheldon explained.

"Well then, I guess I have no other choice. It'll take too long to build a new one from scratch. Our best option is for you to bring it over here so I can fix those bugs and boost the range. We don't have a lot of time to think of other options," Ms. Wakeman said.

"All right then. I'll be back as soon as possible. I'll bring the blueprint for the device as well," Sheldon said as he ran out of the house.

"A hopeless romantic, that one," XJ6 commented.

"Actually, I have to disagree with you on that one, XJ6," Brad said.

"Huh?" everyone else who was able to talk said in unison.

"I'll let Shel tell you about it when he's ready. Let's just say that after I heard what he told me, I've actually slowly started becoming a supporter of his love of Jenny," Brad said.

"Love? Don't you mean crazy obsession?" XJ6 asked.

"No, not obsession, love," Brad said.

"You okay XJ8?" Tuck asked.

Everybody focused their attention on XJ8 who was staring out the window.

"It is getting dark," XJ8 said.

"What's so special about that?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"There is a bitter heaviness in the air, and it does not seem Jenny related. Sisters, if you calm yourselves and focus, you ought to be able to sense it too," XJ8 explained.

The other XJs tried their best to calm down and focus.

After a few moments, XJ4 said "Strange, my sensors are picking up something unusual, but it's faint. You're right, it doesn't seem Jenny related."

The other XJs couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary. One by one, they made it known.

"Whatever it is, it couldn't be that important." Brad said.

"It just seems like a bad omen," XJ8 said.


	23. Chapter 23

Ms. Wakeman was examining the blueprints Sheldon gave her. She was surprised when she found a few notes scribbled at the bottom left hand corner of the last page.

"I see. You were trying to design what I could never quite figure out how to design myself," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Design what?" Sheldon asked.

"You discovered that it was theoretically possible to design it to scan for dark matter, but I see you failed just as miserably as I did," Ms. Wakeman explained as she started working on the device.

"Oh yeah, I actually forgot about that. I gave up on that a while ago. I didn't know you tried the same thing," Sheldon said.

"Yes I did. I spent three months trying and I kept running into the same wall. I'm sure you know which one I mean," Ms. Wakeman said.

"How could I not know? That was one of the most frustrating projects I ever worked on," Sheldon said.

"Same here. To be honest, I'm surprised that you're this smart at your age. You could probably design your own robot girl if you wanted instead of going after XJ9," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Even so, I'll probably never do that. I could make one that looks exactly like Jenny in every way, and give her the same personality, but I could never make a good enough replacement for the original," Sheldon said.

"Look, I'm flattered that you took interest in my daughter, but she isn't interested in you. She probably never will be. I'm convinced that you are wasting your time. In any case, why are you so interested in a robot anyway?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"She made me feel that life was worth living again," Sheldon said.

"What? Hold on, you did say you were ready to kill yourself a few years ago, didn't you? Why?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"I was just as fixated on popularity and fitting in as Jenny was, but I never stood a chance of succeeding. So basically, I was in Jenny's shoes at the time, ready to kill myself for the same reason. When I saw her for the first time, she was trying just as hard as I was to fit in. She seemed like she had a much better chance of succeeding than I ever had. For a while, she was actually making progress. I thought that she would accomplish what I could not, and for some strange reason, I was attracted to her because of that. I decided to stay at least long enough to see if she could pull it off. Also, I felt like I had a better chance of getting her to like me since we were both so similar. That didn't really work out though," Sheldon explained.

"Well, that explains it. Now I finally know why. Would I be right in saying that you also thought that if you couldn't get a human girl, you would try to get just about any girl you could?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"You guessed right," Sheldon replied.

"I personally never cared much about associating with anyone when I was growing up. I was too busy solving mathematical equations college professors couldn't even solve, designing robots, and anything else besides trying to socialize with my peers. There were a few times I tried, but it never worked for me either. It hurt my feelings quite badly, but I never let it get to me to the point where I would consider committing suicide. I figured if I couldn't find happiness through other people, I'd find it through using my mind. But, to tell you the truth, I never really did find happiness. I never experienced any real joy until I created XJ9. For once, I finally felt what it was like to have a daughter. If it wasn't for her stubbornness, I would've never allowed her to come in contact with other humans if I didn't need to. When she started having regular contact, she would come home everyday telling me about her adventures. Through her experiences, I also made contact with the outside world, even if it wasn't literal. I isolated myself for so long, that I'd completely forgotten the value of learning how to develop one's own humanity through others. I tried to make her as human as possible with artificial intelligence technology, but she became more human than I could ever make her from her experiences with other people. When I finally realized that that was the secret the whole time, I was quite embarrassed to know how foolish I was the whole time. Despite that, I was also relieved that she finally reached that level of humanity. That's when she finally seemed more like a daughter instead of another tool for global defense. I had finally experienced real joy for the first time. Even the other XJs are becoming more human the more contact they have with other humans. I considered the first eight to be failed experiments, but I realize now that I was the failure," Ms. Wakeman explained.

XJs one through eight were speechless. They never thought they would hear that from their mother.

"Thank you mom, I needed that," XJ6 said.

One by one, the other XJs thanked her as they were able to.

"You are all welcome. I may have failed you before, but I will do everything I can to make it up to you. For now though, we have to try to bring XJ9 home. I can make it up to you then," Ms. Wakeman said as she handed Sheldon the finished device.

"Wow, that fast? I'm impressed. I might be able to build most of the things you can, but you are so much faster," Sheldon said as he re-installed the device into Silver Shell's chest cavity.

He climbed into Silver Shell's cockpit and closed the outer chassis.

A few moments later, Sheldon finally said "Yes, it works great. I found her signal already. Thank you Ms. Wakeman, now we can find her. Do you want the XJs to come with me ma'am?"

"That's the first time I actually heard Silver Shell's voice. It sounds like one of those corny Boy Scout super heroes. But yes, it would be best if they went with you," Ms. Wakeman said.

Before Sheldon had a chance to retort, the power in the house went out. It was pitch black. No one could see anything.

* * *

"What the hell, why did all the power just go out?" Jenny asked surprised as she watched the entire town she was flying over become completely dark.

After a moment, Jenny said "I can't see anything."

She then transformed one of her eyes into a really bright flash light and continued flying in the direction that she was a few moments ago.

"_What do I care anyway? They can fix this problem on their own. They'll need to start learning how to do things without me_," She thought to herself.

* * *

As soon as Ms. Wakeman activated her house's private generator, her cell phone rang.

She accepted the call and said "I'm sorry, but this is a really bad time."

"I know it is. It's a bad time for everyone Noreen," a man's voice sounded from the phone's speaker.

"Wait, I remember you, you're the manager from the power plant. Mr. Frank Filman, am I correct? What the hell did you manage to screw up this time?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Yes, it's been a long time. I know we've had our differences in the past, but we can't worry about that right now. Tremorton isn't the only city that lost its power. Every city and town on Earth has lost its power," Mr. Filman explained.

"What?" Everyone in the room asked in unison.

"How is that possible?" Ms. Wakeman asked nervously.

"I am the one to blame for this. I should've called you sooner. A powerful computer virus was inputted into every power plant and almost every public communication service's computer systems around the world. We didn't know that it was a virus at first, and we thought it was only our computer system at first as well. I thought we could handle it ourselves without contacting you," Mr. Filman explained.

"Yes, I see your bitterness towards me is what lead to this problem. You must be using a private signal to contact me. I bet it took you a while to set it up," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Yes, but do you realize how bad this situation actually is?" Mr. Filman asked.

"What do you mean?" Ms. Wakeman asked.

"Without light, power, or communication, people will start rioting in the streets. It'll be complete chaos. Powerful forces are at work right now, and who knows what else they're probably planning. Oh, wow, isn't that just great. The turbines just blew up. That means they planted bombs as well. Now we can't restore the power at all. I bet you these explosions are going off all over the world right now," Mr. Filman said.

"The results will be catastrophic, but there's not much I can do to help. XJ9 just ran away from home and she cut off all connections between us so I have no way of telling her. I doubt she even realizes what's going on right now," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"In that case, we might not live through the night. I thought that we might at least be able to save this city and possibly a few of the surrounding ones, but without her, all we can do is hope for the best," Mr. Filman said.

"Hey, don't forget about us. Did you forget that Jenny has eight sisters?" XJ6 yelled.

"No I didn't. I also didn't forget how poorly you handled trying to defeat Smytus's robot either," Mr. Filman said.

"Now you listen to me. They may not be as efficient as XJ9, but they are perfectly capable of handling riots. You know just as well as I do that we are going to need all the help we can get. Before you start insulting my daughters, remember that you were the one who didn't take appropriate action when it was necessary," Ms. Wakeman yelled.

"Daughters? Hmm…I see. Now I understand why you created them. For once, I will give you an apology. I'm sorry that I insulted your daughters. I guess that's about all the time these batteries will las…"Mr. Filman said as the transmission ceased and became static.

"Listen everyone. This may be the most difficult threat we have ever faced, and we had no preparation for it whatsoever, but that doesn't mean we should just roll over. We must do everything we can to save as many people as possible. The plan is as follows. XJs two through eight, you go and try to put a stop to the riots. Bradley, XJ1 and Tucker, you stay here. I'm going to need your help with a few things," Ms. Wakeman said.

"And what about me?" Sheldon asked.

"You should be the one to find XJ9. It's hard for me to explain to you why, but I believe that you have a better chance of convincing her to come home than any of us," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"Why me? What would make me have a better chance? Right, you said it would be hard for you to explain it. Okay then, I'll give it my best shot," Sheldon said as he left the house through the front door.

"So, does that mean you support Sheldon's love for Jenny too," Brad asked.

"Yes, I do," Ms. Wakeman replied.

"Who knows, maybe it really is more than just an obsession. That's enough of that for now. Come on sisters, we have work to do," XJ6 said.

XJs two through eight left through the front door as well.

As soon as the door closed, Tuck asked, "So, what do you need us to help you with?"

"I'm glad you asked. I haven't officially decided to try it yet, but I have something for you to use just in case the situation gets even worse. So, as long as it's only riots to worry about, we won't even have to resort to it. For the time being, I have nothing for you to do. So just sit back and wait for while," Ms. Wakeman explained.


	24. Chapter 24

Jenny found a steel refinement plant about five hundred miles from Tremorton. There was some light coming from inside the building, but only because the melted steel gave off an orange glow. She gazed at the molten metal through one of the open windows for a minute. Her entire body was trembling with fear. Even at this point, she still had trouble believing that she was seriously thinking about going through with the unthinkable.

When it comes to not being able to self terminate, Jenny can't do the following. One, she can't simply will herself to die. Two, she can't point a weapon at her brain, whether it be one of hers or someone else's, that is strong enough to pierce her armor. Her failsafe functions would prevent her body from doing that. Since she is basically a weapon, she can't even attempt to damage her brain with any of her body parts whether they are in standard or weapon form.

"_But I can damage or remove my other body parts without the failsafe kicking in_," She thought to herself.

After scanning the metal, she realized it wasn't quite hot enough to do the job. She activated her GPS navigator once again and searched for something even more dangerous. She searched until she found an explosives factory about forty miles northwest. She had found the most effective option without going as far as killing countless other people. This factory was located in the middle of nowhere, and all the personnel were most likely at home sleeping. She pointed in the direction of the factory and started flying towards it.

While she was heading towards her final destination, she was imagining how the first option would have been if the metal was hot enough. She imagined herself hovering above the container of liquid death until she finally found the nerve to break off her rockets and fall in. Her death would've either been quickly or slowly depending on how hot the metal was, but fortunately for her, she wouldn't be able to feel it either way. Gradual or swift, her end would've been a painless one.

When she finally arrived at the factory, she took a look around on the dark interior to see how many explosives there actually were. She was more than a little surprised to find that there was far more than enough to do the job. There was enough to probably destroy a somewhat below average sized mountain.

"This is a hell of a lot of firepower. I wonder what they were planning on doing with all these explosives. But I guess…I won't need to worry about that anymore, will I?" Jenny said in an almost whisper.

She scanned the placement of all the explosives for the most effective method of detonating them all at once. After deciding on the best method, she paused to contemplate her short life. A little more than seven years had passed since her initial activation. The first five seemed to pass by as if it were merely an eye blink.

"I guess time really does fly when you're having fun, doesn't it?" Jenny said smiling as her voice began trembling.

The last two years of her life gradually became worse and more depressing as time passed until she finally reached the point that she was at now. She figured that death would be a much more preferable fate for her, rather than to continue living knowing that there was a world of people who didn't want her around anyway. The more she thought about it, the angrier and more depressed she became.

"Well, at least you all won't have to fear and hate me anymore. I won't be around to make your lives any more difficult, to give you that unwanted competition. You'll finally have it your way. I hope you'll be happy with yourselves. Goodbye everyone," Jenny said.

She closed her eyes for a few moments to prepare herself. She calmed down as much as she could and reopened her eyes. She then raised both of her arms outward and turned around sixty degrees. The tips of her fingers and thumbs opened up and shaped themselves like the barrel of a gun. Her fingers then aimed at ten specific locations where the most dangerous explosives were concentrated.

"I wonder. Do robots like me have a soul? Will there be a place for me after I'm gone? Who the fuck am I kidding? We all know that's bullshit. I'm not even natural," Jenny said.

Another moment later, she began slowly charging the energy for the lasers that were going to end her miserable existence. She didn't need nearly this much energy for the task, but she figured that if she was going down, she'd do it in a style fit for a tool of destruction such as herself.

She closed her eyes once again. At last, she would be at peace. At last, she would no longer have to live a miserable life, struggling everyday to find happiness. At last, she could finally rest.

Her entire body became tense as she fired all ten lasers at once. She could see the bright flash of light through her eyelids as she waited for her doom. Just then, she realized there was something wrong. Something was out of place, something that was not part of her plan. She pointed her head upwards and opened her eyes to see her arms pointing straight upwards surrounded in almost blinding light.

She could then see that the roof of the building had an enormous hole in it. As the concentration of light inside the building diminished, she could see the lasers flying straight upwards. The entire moment seemed to pass in slow motion. The lasers seemed to grow smaller and smaller as they got farther away. They soon seemed like extra stars in the sky, and then they completely vanished from sight. She looked back at her hands to see that two much larger robotic hands were holding onto hers forcing her fingers to point upwards. When she looked at the owner of those giant hands, with the aid of the moonlight, she realized that it was none other than Silver Shell. She could also feel that her feet were no longer touching the floor. She was being held up a foot and a half from the floor dangling.

"Have you completely lost it XJ9? You could've killed yourself," Sheldon yelled.

Since Jenny never knew that Sheldon was controlling Silver Shell's body, there was virtually no way she could tell that Sheldon was inside that enormous robot body.

Jenny looked down at the floor and said "Let me go."

"What?" Sheldon asked.

"Let me go," Jenny screamed as she started trying her hardest to break free from his grasp.

Her body looked like it was wobbling around similar to a puppet at the end of its string in the hand of a still inexperienced puppeteer as she tried to pull her hands out of his.

"XJ9. I heard about what happened to you, and what you were trying to do now. I was asked to come here to stop you. You of all people should know that it's illogical to take your own life," Sheldon said.

"I don't care, just let me go dammit. Get out of here so I can finish the job. You have your whole life ahead of you, a much happier one than mine. Now let me go," Jenny screamed.

Jenny continued screaming and squirming as Sheldon looked down at her speechless. At the moment, he couldn't think of anything to say to her.

Finally, something came to him, and he said in very soft tone "This is very strange indeed. Since when is the great global defender this easy to subdue?" Sheldon asked.

Jenny stopped screaming and stared straight forward with eyes wide open surprised when she heard his question.

"If I tried this the last time we met, you would've easily gotten free, and probably turned me into scrap," Sheldon said.

Jenny was scared at this point. She noticed that she was becoming considerably weaker and couldn't figure out why. Since when does she have difficulty flying? Since when does she wait around for aid from the fire department? She could've easily found a way to put out the remaining fire on her own. Since when is it that she's had such a hard time freeing herself from the hands of a robot that she realized long ago wasn't even half her overall strength?

"I was right. I really am worthless," she said as she started crying again.

Jenny was no longer providing any resistance whatsoever. She hung there like a lifeless doll.

Sheldon made Silver Shell slowly kneel down on the floor and slowly place his left hand behind her knees and his right hand under her upper back to hold her in his lap. She continued crying no longer caring what happened to her.

"Go ahead. You've had it bottled up inside you all this time. Let it all out," Sheldon said.

About six minutes later, Jenny finally stopped crying so heavily. It was finally reduced to more of a whimpering.

"Listen Jenny, I don't know where you got that idea, but you are not worthless," Sheldon said.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Jenny said.

"If anything, I'm the one who's mostly worthless. I act tough, but I'm not. I usually manage to screw things up every time I'm out there trying to be a hero," Sheldon explained.

After a moment of silence, Sheldon then said "You don't have to look like the classic super hero to be a hero. You've proven that every time you saved the day. I proved it from every time I screwed up."

"But you aren't rejected, and treated like a disease every day like I am. What good is being a hero if the people I save never appreciate it? What good is being a member of a society that treats me like I'm not and should never be a part of it," Jenny asked.

"You're wrong. People do appreciate it. They're just too stubborn to show it. I think you'd have to be pretty much insane not to be thankful to some extent to the person who saved your life," Sheldon explained.

"So, does that make me insane? I was thinking about killing you for saving mine," Jenny said.

"Maybe. I can't really answer that. I might be insane for all I know. Too many variables. My statement was probably flawed. I've never thought of you as being insane personally. Maybe a little stubborn at times, and maybe a little naive, but never insane," Sheldon explained.

Jenny glared at him with a stern expression and said sarcastically "Well, that's very reassuring."

"Listen, just forget I ever made those stubborn and naive comments. I'm sorry I ever even thought of it," Sheldon said.

"It's rare that I ever receive an apology from anyone. This concept mostly applies to humans though. The one's who ever did probably only did it to make themselves seem like less of an asshole. They're the ones who consider robots to be ugly, but they have more ugliness on the inside than almost any other race of people I've met. Those aliens that attacked us during the Romeo and Juliet play were kind of like the physical form of what I'm describing. They pretend to be nice long enough for you to trust them, then turn around and stab you in the back with a burning knife of deceit and hatred. It's the way the humans looked at them though. They didn't even know who they were, and they still looked at them with such awe and admiration. I will admit, I looked at them that way myself. They were beautiful. They knew who I was, and they still think of me as nuisance. They even thought of me that way right from the start. I wish I was beautiful like they are, but apparently, I'm not. Also, there's a question that's designed to make you think, and you've probably heard it before. If a tree falls, and no one is around, does it make a sound? In my case, if I'm a hero and no one recognizes it, does that really make me one then?" Jenny asked.

"But you are a hero, and beautiful," Sheldon said.

"Wait, where have I heard that before?" Jenny asked surprised.

Sheldon made Silver Shell stand up and set Jenny down on the floor in a standing position.

"You cut off all communication to your mom, and a year ago, you had her destroy the energy tracking device she built to monitor you. There had to be a way to find you, and there was. Who else do you think knows how to build one anywhere close to being as efficient as your mother's that lives within a thousand miles of Tremorton?" Sheldon asked.

"It can't be. You mean that, all this time, you were actually…?" Jenny asked but didn't finish the sentence because she still wasn't quite convinced.

Silver Shell took two steps back into the dark. The chassis opened up and Sheldon climbed out. The chassis closed and Sheldon stepped into the light.

"You've gotta be kidding me. All this time, you were Silver Shell? Why would you do this to me? I really looked up to Silver Shell. That's like reveling to me that my mother wasn't really the one who created me," Jenny yelled angrily.

Jenny then slapped him in the face with her right hand, and Sheldon grabbed it with his left hand.

"I know you know some martial arts. Why didn't you try to avoid it?" Jenny asked surprised.

"I could've easily avoided it, but I didn't. I wanted to see if my theory was correct. If you want to see what I mean, I'll show you," Sheldon said as he removed her hand from his face.

"It's barely even red at all," Jenny said even more surprised.

"If you still don't get it, I'll explain it to you. When Silver Shell was holding you in the air, and you were trying your hardest to free yourself, Silver Shell's sensors weren't able to detect any resistance at all. That means your strength level dropped below the point where it would even be recognizable as even the most minor of threats to Silver Shell. That also means that your strength level dropped to about the level of a young human girl's. I'm talking about a normal human girl of around eleven or twelve years old. You were so devoid of willpower, and convinced that you were worthless, that it's like it your body was also convinced of it. When you made the decision to slap me, you chose to fight in a way, and that boosted your strength level up just a little. I just felt you tug at your arm to try and free it from my grasp just a moment ago, and I was able to hold on with ease. Normally, you would've thrown me across the room effortlessly," Sheldon explained.

Jenny paused completely to consider what he just said. A moment later, Sheldon pulled her close and hugged her.

Before she could attempt to get him off of her, Sheldon hugged even tighter and said in a tone that sounded as if he was about to cry himself "But that's not the Jenny I know. That's not the Jenny I admired so much. I admired you because you were strong. You had more will and determination to gain popularity than I ever had. We both may have failed, but that doesn't mean we should just give up. I never told you this, but not long before I met you, I tried to kill myself for basically the same reason you just tried to kill yourself for. I couldn't stand to be considered a freak. I couldn't stand the fact that I would never really be accepted simply because I was different. When I saw you trying so hard to succeed where I couldn't, it made me feel alive again. Your strength gave me strength. I decided to stay around at least long enough to see if you could pull it off. Over time, my overwhelming sadness left me. I haven't thought about killing myself for over a year now. You cured me. So yes, you are a hero, even if you didn't recognize it yourself. Anything worth anything must be fought for. If being accepted by the human population is really worth fighting for, then fight. It may be a difficult uphill battle, but there's always a way to get to the top, but not without the will to try," Sheldon explained.

"I don't know what to say. After all the mean things I've said to you, and the way I treated you, you're still being nice to me," Jenny said.

"Even if I never win your heart, I'll never stop trying. That is my goal. But, the most important thing to me right now is your well being, not my love for you. You need your strength back so you can fight. I'd let you kill me right now if it would bring the old Jenny back, and I'm dead serious about that," Sheldon said as he let her go.

As Jenny began to finally understand Sheldon better, he said "But we really can't worry about this right now. We've got trouble, serious trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Jenny asked.

"So you really have no idea what's been going on, do you?" Sheldon asked.

"What do you mean?" Jenny asked puzzled.


	25. Chapter 25

Sure enough, Mr. Filman was right. People were rioting in the streets. For most of them, their only light sources were hand held.

The military was currently dispatching troops to the largest cities to try to end the riots. The president feared that there would be no end of the chaos for quite a while. Even though it was daylight on the other side of the planet, people were still rioting. The chaos wasn't as heavy as it was on the dark side of the planet, but the sunny side would soon become dark as well. It would be a cycle that could repeat itself for a very long time.

Whoever thought of this plan was a tactical genius. They waited until the people of the Earth, including the ones in power, felt so secure that they were convinced nothing anywhere close to being this serious could ever actually happen. That's when they decided to strike, and they struck a mighty blow indeed. Instead of attacking one specific location, they decided to attack everything all at once. Exactly how they were able to set everything up without anyone realizing the seriousness of it all ahead of time was beyond anyone's understanding. No one had even the slightest clue as to who was responsible for this atrocity. The worst part about it all was that they also had no idea what else could be in store for them.

* * *

Meanwhile, the XJs had their hands full. The police force of any city could only handle a small portion of the crisis, so wherever any of the XJs decided to go, they were basically on their own.

The most populated city being New York City, XJ8 decided to try her luck there. It would be one hell of a battle, even for her, the physically strongest of the sisters. One human was child's play for her to handle, but handling around ten million people would be a desperate struggle for survival. It would be tough enough to save the people, but she also had to worry about saving herself.

Los Angeles, California was the second most heavily populated. XJ6 went there. Chicago, Illinois was next. XJ7 went there. Houston, Texas was next. XJ4 went there. Phoenix, Arizona was next. XJ5 went there. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was next. XJ3 went there. San Antonio, Texas was next. XJ2 went there.

With very limited resources, this was the best they could manage. They all realized that they might die that night. Even if they survived that night, there was the night that would immediately follow that one on the other side of the planet. At this point, the situation seemed completely hopeless.

* * *

XJ8 finally reached the edge of New York City. The view was mostly scattered flames that stretched for hundreds of square miles. It was too dark to see much else. She could hear yells, screams, and crying from people everywhere. She could hear vehicles exploding, windows breaking, and guns of all kinds firing.

"I could never fully understand why humans behave this way. It is illogical. Nevertheless, this is what we were originally created for. We are supposed to protect the human race, be it from outside threats, or from each other. According to my calculations, I only have a two point three percent chance of survival," She said.

She activated her infrared vision and started flying straight into an area were humans were most heavily concentrated.

"There is no turning back now," She said.

* * *

XJ6 landed in the middle of Los Angeles with her infrared vision already activated ready to fight.

"Come on, show me what you got," She yelled as she charged directly into the fray.

* * *

XJ7 landed in Chicago staring into the chaos with one of the most disappointed frowns on her face that she's ever had.

"They're in an even more miserable state than even I've ever been in," she said as she headed towards what she could've sworn was a building with person or some kind of large object falling from one of its windows.

* * *

XJ4 landed in Houston disgusted at all the damage that she could see.

"Look at this mess. I really hope they don't expect me to clean this up when this is all over," she said while dodging a baseball bat someone tried to hit her with.

* * *

XJ5 landed in Phoenix. Well, she doesn't have legs of any kind, so she didn't literally land.

"This is gonna be rough. I seriously hope I survive this," she said as she tried to think of the best place to start.

* * *

XJ3 finally landed in Philadelphia. She had never dreamed that she would have to handle this many people at one time. Since she was one of the smallest, she was completely terrified of this challenge. She wasn't sure if she wanted to venture in any further.

* * *

XJ2 finally landed in San Antonio. She was the most terrified, not because she was smaller than most of the others, but because she was still suffering from those chronic hiccups that were never really worked out of her system. Every time she would hiccup, she would fire a laser uncontrollably. She was afraid that she would do more damage than good.

* * *

About thirty minutes later, which seemed like an eternity, Jenny and Sheldon/Silver Shell landed in Tremorton. The Wakeman residence being one of the only houses in the city with a private generator, it had light coming from the windows that attracted thieves to it like moths to a flame.

Fortunately, Jenny arrived just in time to fight off the thieves surrounding the house. As soon as the still conscious thieves ran away, Jenny knocked on the door to the house frantically.

"Who's there?" Ms. Wakeman yelled.

"Mom, it's me and Sheldon. Let us in," Jenny yelled.

Not wasting a second, Ms. Wakeman opened the door. The first thing Jenny did was give her mother a hug.

"Oh XJ9, I missed you so much," Ms. Wakeman said with tears rolling down her face.

"I'm sorry that our reunion will have to be postponed. I need a way to contact my sisters right away," Jenny said as she stood back up.

"I understand, but that would take hours. I would have to build you a new communicator," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Why did I have to be so stupid? Now I can't find them. XJ3 needs my help the most," Jenny said frustrated.

A few seconds later, all the XJs heard a beeping noise inside them.

"What's that noise? I can hear it out here," Brad said.

A second later, all the XJs could hear a voice in their heads. This voice was only familiar to Jenny, Brad, and Tuck.

"Jenny, it's me, Melody. Right now, we can't afford to think about our differences. You know that just as well as I do. I know you're with your mom and some of your friends right now, and they need to hear this conversation too. I can channel my voice through your voice speaker if you let me," Melody said.

"Actually, I have a better idea. Listen up guys; follow me into the computer room. This is really important," Jenny said.

Everyone followed her as instructed. When they arrived, Jenny pulled a wire out of a drawer and connected one end of it to a port inside her mouth, and the other end to a port on the computer.

"We can start now," Jenny said as she sat down in a chair.

All the XJs that could speak and Melody's voice could be heard through the speakers on the computer.

"Listen everybody. It's me, Melody," Melody said.

"Hey Melody. It's been so long. How ya been?" Brad asked.

"Not so good," Melody said.

"Wait, so you're the one that was so fixated on Brad," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Yes, but we have more important things to discuss. I know everything that's going on right now. The world is in chaos and we need to work together if we're to even have the smallest hope of restoring order. I have a new attachment that allows me to contact all the XJs that I made myself. It operates on a higher radio frequency than most other communication devices, so you can hear me through the bugs planted inside you," Melody said.

"Bugs? What bugs?" XJ5 asked.

"My father planted them inside you all about a year ago. They were designed so that I could communicate with you and release a computer virus into your primary CPUs at will, but I chose not to go through with it. If you're wondering why my dad hasn't made me do it yet, that would be because he can't. He died seven months ago from cancer," Melody said.

"So that's why you said you haven't been doing so good. I'm really sorry to hear that," Brad said.

"It's not quite that simple. I never really liked him much at all when he was alive. I only started feeling sorry for him when I saw how badly the cancer was affecting his body and how much pain he was in. When he died, I tried my best to pretend that I didn't care, that I was glad he was gone. As time passed, it's started to affect me in ways that I never thought possible. He was my father after all. I had to admit that to myself at some point. The bugs can easily be removed without damaging yourselves, but we need to communicate with each other until this is over. It'd be best if you kept them in for now. I have no intention to release that virus, you have my word. I never go back on my word, that's the one and only good advice that my father taught me," Melody said.

"You said you know everything that is going on. How much do you actually know?" XJ8 asked.

"Well, I know about everything that's happened since the bugs have been planted in you all, including your suicide attempt for one thing Jenny. There were several times I was thinking about destroying you all with the virus to carry out my father's wishes, but after seeing how much pain Jenny was experiencing, I can barely even bring myself to consider it anymore. About this virus that's affected all those computer systems, I discovered it about two weeks ago. It was so amazingly complex; decades ahead of any kind of virus that anyone on Earth could've produced, and I do mean anyone. I doubt that even Ms. Wakeman could've gotten rid of it. I think someone from another planet did it, but I can't even begin to tell you who. They left no signature of any kind, and it matched no particular programming language that could tell us who is responsible. I would've warned everybody if I was able to determine that it was indeed a virus any sooner than a few hours ago," Melody explained.

"I'm sure you know we don't appreciate the fact that you've been spying on us this whole time," Jenny said angrily.

"I understand, and I don't expect you to forgive me for it either. I realize I was wrong. As I said before, we really don't have time to fight each other. I'm currently heading towards Houston to help XJ4 out. She's not built for fighting like most of you are. I figured the best plan is for me to help her out, for Jenny to help out XJ3 in Philadelphia, and for Sheldon to help out XJ2 in San Antonio. All of you can access the bugs to locate and communicate with each other, but that's all we can really do for now," Melody said.

"That's fine. I'm heading on over to XJ3 right now," Jenny said.

"Wait a second. There's something all of you should know," Ms. Wakeman said.

"What is it mom?" Jenny asked.

"I do have something else that can be of help. It's in the room that you can't even get in XJ9. I'm sure you know which one," Ms. Wakeman said.

"So you're finally going to tell me what's in there?" Jenny asked.

"I have no choice but to tell you right now, but I was hoping I would never have to use them. Basically, they are strength boosters I made for all the XJs. The problem is they're dangerous. They'll push you beyond your physical limits. If you remain in that state for too long, you could die. You don't need to get them yourselves. If you are in serious enough danger, I'll activate them, and they'll find their way to you on their own," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"Then why did you need us to stay here?" Brad asked.

"That's because I made a few that were designed for humans. I realize I never should have made them. They're even more dangerous for humans than robots. It'll be your decision as to whether you want to use them or not. For the time being though, we should not use them. We should wait to see how serious this situation is going to get," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"This situation is already serious," Tuck said.

"I know that, but I'm confident that this situation can be handled by Melody, Sheldon, and the XJs as long as it doesn't get any worse. You're so confident that you can take the pain, aren't you Tuck? Well, you can't. If you use it for more than an hour, your body will start to overheat rapidly because almost all of your liquids will have evaporated by that point. Not only that, your muscles will start to tear themselves apart. Ten minutes later, you will have overheated to the point where you might actually burst into flames. Chances are, you will have died from the stress long before that even happens. Not only that, but you might end up having serious psychological effects that could haunt you for the rest of your lives even if you survive. I'm letting you know exactly what would happen to you now so you won't go begging me to let you try it out. It's not a toy. It should only be used as a last resort," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"That's a really good way to crush childlike optimism," Tuck said nervously as he thought about her explanation.

"_I'm surprised he understands what he just said at his age_," Ms. Wakeman thought to herself.

"Seriously, can we really trust Melody? She said she considered destroying us with the virus," XJ5 said.

"Like I said, that's what my father wanted. That's not what I ever really wanted. I only considered doing it to respect his wishes, but not anymore. He may have been my father, but he was also a bad influence. I would never wish death upon anyone who doesn't deserve it," Melody explained.

"Okay. I'll trust you. It's not like we have the time to debate this anymore. We have to get going. XJ2 through 4 need our help right away," Jenny said before pulling the wire out of her mouth.

"All right then, let's get going," Sheldon said as he started heading for the door.

Jenny followed behind him. The others watched the two leave the house together.

"Judging by how close Jenny was to Sheldon the whole time, I'd say that things just might work out between them," Tuck pointed out.

"You realize that could've just been a coincidence, but I hope your right," Brad said.


	26. Chapter 26

So far, the XJs were doing just fine. The only exception was a small dent that XJ8 received from a bullet in her right arm. An officer accidently shot her with it when he was aiming at something completely different. XJ8 had run right into the path of the bullet without realizing it ahead of time.

Luckily for her, that small dent didn't make her any less functional. Plus, the dent would repair itself in a matter of minutes anyway. Even so, she knew that she couldn't afford to keep making mistakes.

* * *

The young woman from the Mudslinger incident was sitting the police station as calm as usual. She was there upon request from an inspector about an hour before the chaos began. Two officers were left in the station to guard it and any innocent people who were also in there.

The woman continued staring straight forward with a perfectly calm expression that was starting to bother the others in the room.

One officer finally spoke up saying "Ma'am. How can you possibly be so calm at a time like this? Are you even aware of what's going on?"

A moment later the woman said "Of course. I'm well aware. I just don't get excited or nervous very easily. I knew something was going to happen soon, something terrible, but I've had plenty of time to come to terms with it. If this is the end, if I die here in this building, I accept it. I realize no amount of crying or screaming is going to help us, so I choose to remain calm and let the storm pass."

The other officer spoke up saying "Shit, I envy you lady. Most of us aren't that strong. Most of us can't stand as firm as you are right now."

"But I'm sitting right now officer," the woman said smiling.

Everyone else in the room giggled a little at her comment.

"Fine, you win. I guess we should try to lighten up a little bit. During our training, we were taught repeatedly to keep our cool and focus in any situation. We'll have a better chance of getting through this alive if we do. I just wish everyone else could follow your example right now," The first officer said.

* * *

Unfortunately, keeping your cool and focus in any situation is sometimes easier said than done, especially when you're right in the middle of the crisis. XJ4 is a prime example of this.

She was doing fine until a car exploded next to her, sending her flying into a nearby wall. The damage to her exterior was actually quite minor, but that wasn't the case with some of her interior. She hid in a corner and ran a self diagnostic for damages.

"This isn't good at all. I was wondering why I couldn't move my arms very easily. If I can't use my arms, I'm completely useless right now. I need to find a safer place to hide," XJ4 said before scanning the area for a good hiding place.

It would take about an hour for her body to repair her damages.

After finding a place on top of a roof, she contacted the others saying "I'm sorry, but I'll be out of it for at least an hour. I got hit by an explosion from a car. My damages aren't too serious, so you don't have to worry too much. Also, I don't want to rush you, but I really wish you could get here sooner Melody. I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"I'm moving as fast as I can. I'll be there in about sixteen minutes. Try to stay alive until then," Melody said.

"I'm not damaged, but I don't know how much more I can take either. It's really turning into a war zone out here. I never thought I'd see a dead body in real life," XJ6 said.

"I know what you mean. It's the same cycle over and over. I break into your house because you have something I want. You say no, I earned that. We both fight, and one or both of us gets seriously injured or killed. It's not so bad if it only happens once in a blue moon, but it's happening all over the city. Is it genetic or something? Most of them think alike," XJ5 said.

"Yeah, I'm getting the same thing over here. Also, it seems like all of them see this as an opportunity to steal what they've always wanted because it's really hard to see them when they commit the crime. They're not really thinking though. While they're out stealing from one location, somebody is stealing from their house. When they return home, they realize their mistake. This creates even more chaos when they get angry because of it. Honestly, I don't know how long this is going to go on. If even the military is having a hard time solving this problem, I don't think this is going to end any time soon," XJ7 said.

* * *

The green computer screen flickered once again and a line in red read "CONVERSATION CHANNEL OPEN," appeared on the screen.

Another line in blue read "Now it's finally starting to get interesting."

Another line in black then read "Yes, humanity at its finest."

Another line in blue read "Even I had doubts that this would work out so well. I even had doubts that you would be able to find the final component, but you found like you said you would. Soon we can begin the most important phase."

Another line in black then read "Yes, of course. I guess it's about time to get prepared then."

Another line in red then read "CONVERSATION CHANNEL CLOSED."

The usually dark room began lighting up. Any kind of noise that machines are known for making was being made as they all activated. The computer screen flickered a few times, and then turned off.


	27. Chapter 27

Several hours passed that seemed like an eternity. With the help of the military and the police forces, they managed to gain some ground on ending the riots. Only, it wasn't a lot of ground.

Jenny was having a particularly difficult time keeping up her pace. She wasn't low on power, but she felt tired. People would normally think that a robot couldn't feel fatigue, but she swore that's what she was experiencing.

She used to want to do this kind of work, but after the events of the past few weeks, she felt almost no urge to keep going. She knew what the incentive was, but she didn't feel it. It seemed like she was doing it for no reason.

XJ3 had noticed Jenny's sharp decrease in performance, but wasn't able to speak to let the other's know. Finally, she had an idea.

"I'm hearing Morse code," XJ8 said.

"Is that you XJ3?" XJ5 asked.

"Yes, it's me. I think Jenny might be in trouble. She doesn't seem nearly as strong as before, and she actually seems to be wearing out. I'm sure she's able to last longer than this, right?" XJ3 asked in Morse code.

"All of us have received damage, but none of us are actually wearing out. Why would Jenny be?" XJ7 asked.

"Hey Jenny. Are you hearing all of this?" XJ6 asked.

A few seconds of silence followed. Jenny wasn't answering them at all.

Finally, XJs 4 through 8 and Melody yelled "Jenny!"

A moment later, Jenny finally responded "Yeah yeah, I heard you loud and clear. Honestly, I really don't understand it myself. Robots aren't supposed to feel tired, but I do."

"Okay…something has gotta be causing this. What is on your mind right now?" Melody asked.

"My whole life. Most importantly, my most recent experiences. I think that maybe dwelling on these thoughts is slowing me down, but I can't just stop thinking about it all. Not only that, but I don't really feel like doing this at all. I have almost no drive to continue," Jenny explained.

"Wait a second. My sensors are picking up something…familiar," XJ4 said.

All of the XJs stopped what they were doing as they all started picking up the same signal.

"What is that? It's definitely familiar, but I can't put my finger on it," Jenny said.

"It is the same signal XJ4 and I detect earlier when night was approaching," XJ8 said.

"Whatever it is, I can sense its strongest concentration coming from right outside the city I'm in. I'll go check it out now," Jenny said as she took off flying in the direction of the signal.

When she arrived at the edge, she could see an enormous silhouette of something in the darkness.

Jenny was about to use a higher power flash light when a voice sounded from very loud speakers said "There won't be any need for that XJ9."

All of a sudden, lights from small robots floating in the air turned on and shined directly on the large object. The light revealed the object to be a space ship that landed on the ground.

The chaos in the streets slowly came to a halt as they focused their attention on the bright lights and ship.

"That voice. I know I've heard it before. Wait, I remember now. You're that guy I saw in that video a few months ago. You're Mr. Green," Jenny said.

Four small robots situated themselves in the air in a horizontal rectangle formation. They then formed a hologram of light between them. Then Mr. Green's face showed up on the screen grinning.

"Your memory is just as good as ever. Even I didn't think you'd figure it out so quickly. Though, even you would never have figured out I was behind all of this unless I told you. I'm not the type to leave obvious clues," Mr. Green said.

"But this just isn't making any sense. Why you of all people? Why would a corporate lawyer and computer engineer want to cause so much chaos? And since when did you get your hands on a space ship?" Jenny yelled.

Mr. Green chuckled for a moment, and then said "Those are good questions. One question you should've asked though is am I really who you think I am."

"Huh?" Jenny asked puzzled.

"I'll get to that, but first, I should let you know that I have these nifty little screens and speakers hovering above cities and towns all over the world. Everything that you or I say or do will be heard and seen by everyone," Mr. Green explained.

Jenny's eyes opened wide with surprise knowing that all eyes are on her at that moment.

"One question I'm sure you would all like answered is how I managed to infect all of those computer systems without anyone noticing. Well, I guess now is a good time to explain it. First of all, there's no possible way for me to have infected the computers without anyone noticing at my current size. So, I didn't actually do it myself. I sent small hard to see robots all over the world to plant the virus. I knew if I acted too quickly, there was I good chance one of my robots would've been discovered. I can only imagine the look on Mr. Filman's and all the other people that asked for my helps faces right now. They thought I was going to be their savior when they had no idea I was the cause of the problem in the first place," Mr. Green explained.

"Ok. I guess that makes sense. Another question, how did you get your hands on the money for all these robots? I'm sure even a man with your credentials couldn't even begin to afford all of this," Jenny said.

"Another good question. I had these robots hidden for years. They've been at my disposal since, but I didn't have use for them until recently. I have a question I want to ask. How did your first suicide attempt go anyway?"

Every screen that had Mr. Green's face changed over to show Jenny's shocked and embarrassed expression. The people around the world who actually did admire Jenny were very shocked to hear this news. The screens that switched from Mr. Green to Jenny finally switched back from Jenny to Mr. Green.

With a big evil grin, Mr. Green said "That's the look. That's what I've been waiting to see. I must admit, you even surprised me when I learned of your recent decline. I thought you were just going to become one of those emo teens and remain that way, but it didn't happen that way, did it? No, you bypassed that stage almost completely and went straight to a suicide attempt in almost record time. It only took a few weeks. Oh yeah, and when I watched your poor performance for the past few hours, I realized you must still be all torn up inside over it. So tell me this people, how is this emotionally unstable girl going to save you now? Simple answer, she can't. And even if she was at full strength, she or her defective sisters couldn't save you worthless people from what I have in store for you."

The top of the space ship opened up slowly. Jenny fired a few lasers at the ship, but the lasers fizzled out when they hit an invisible force field surrounding the ship. A large platform rose up from the opening revealing Mr. Green and a young kid standing beside him. Everyone figured the kid must be his son.

"Nice try XJ9. Your pitiful lasers cannot penetrate this barrier. Try all you like, but it won't get you anywhere," Mr. Green explained.

"You know Mr. Green, you still haven't told us who you really are yet, but you don't really need to. I think I've figured it out already. You and your phony son can't fool me very easily. Your voice may sound different, but the mannerisms in the way you speak are still the same. I really thought you two were dead…Smytus and Krackus," Jenny said.

Both Mr. Green and his son grinned as their skin started slowly breaking apart like pieces of glass and their eyes glowed a bright neon green.

"So, you figured it out after all. Well done. Come bear witness to our glorious comeback, for most of you will only live long enough to see our performance once," Smytus said.

Both Smytus and Krackus started laughing maniacally as the rest of their disguises shattered revealing black and green humanoid robot forms. A few seconds later, their bodies grew in size and reshaped themselves to match their original forms.

"Hah, what's so glorious about that? You're exactly the same as before," Jenny said grinning.

"Don't get too excited XJ9. We may look the same, but our bodies have been heavily modified. You'll find that defeating us will be next to impossible this time," Krackus said confidently.

"Oh yes, and we have a little surprised for you. I'm sure you'll like it," Smytus said as he pressed a button on a remote.

A hole in the platform opened up. A smaller platform rose up out of that one, and it had a large containment unit of some kind on top of it. When it opened, it revealed a robot connected to many other wires and machines. It was very hard for Jenny to see who this robot was since none of the lights were flashing directly on it.

"Here, maybe this will shed some light on the situation," Smytus said as a light shined on the robot revealing who it was.

"What, Vexus?" Jenny yelled surprised.

Vexus was barely conscious and was badly damaged. Her right eye had several cracks in it and the light that normally shines from it was noticeably dimmer than her left. There were dents, burns, and cracks all over body. All the wires and restraints connected to her looked like something right out of a science fiction film.

People everywhere were mumbling similar things such as, "Is that really her?," "She doesn't look so good," "What happened to her," "It's about time she got what she deserves," "Why didn't XJ9 do that to her long ago?," etc.

Vexus opened her mouth slowly as if to try to speak. Everyone quieted down and waited to hear what she had to say. Every speaker was prepared to let the world hear what she had to say.

A few moments later, Vexus finally found the strength to say very slowly "Please…please…help me."

"And just why the hell should we?" Somebody yelled from the ground.

Very quickly, people all over the world went into an uproar. The only person that would even consider helping Vexus right now is Charlotte, but one voice from a thirteen year old girl just wouldn't count against billions of others. Vexus listened to how angry they all became when they heard her desperate plea. Not surprised at all, she remained silent and listened with a very weak smile on her face.

When the noise died down a little, Smytus yelled "Silence."

When everyone did, he walked over to Vexus and said "What an incredibly stupid thing for you to ask for. You, of all people, ask them for help. Even I have more sense than that. If I was in your place right now, my former queen, I would know better than to ask for help from people that I tried to enslave."

"Well said Smytus. We must've damaged her brain or something in our fight. She's babbling like an idiot. Oh, you have no idea how many times I've wanted to call you an idiot in your face, just like you did to me for centuries. If you were so much smarter than me, why is it that I was the one coming up with most of the plans while you sat around in your precious throne room?" Krackus asked.

Vexus remained silent with the weak smile still on her face.

Krackus leaned in close to her face with his right ear close to her mouth and said "I can't hear you. I am expecting an answer."

A moment later, Vexus found the strength to slowly force the light in her damaged eye to brighten to normal; she opened her eyes all the way, grinned, and then said "You're still an idiot."

Vexus's damaged eye dimmed again and her expression returned to a desperate one. Krackus was furious at her response.

"If we didn't need your body, you'd be dead right now. You might want to remember that next time you decide to insult me," Krackus yelled.

By this time, the sun's light was starting to pierce through the night sky. The sun itself was still invisible at this point.

"Hey, don't worry about it. There won't be a next time remember. Once her usefulness runs out, we'll just toss her body into the nearest dump," Smytus said.

"Your right. Now, how about we get on with the next phase. There's nothing stopping us now that you found the final component," Krackus said.

"What component?" Jenny asked.

Krackus pointed towards Vexus and said "That little orb on Vexus's head. The power to control almost all machines with a built in computer: a technological marvel that I've spent centuries trying to reproduce. She knows how to reproduce it, but the materials for it are rare, and the programming language is thousands of years ahead of anything I've invented. I've been trying to find an alternate means of producing the same effect. Now do you see? We may not be able to reproduce it, but we have found a way to amplify its power many fold."

"Oh no, you're monsters. So, you make the humans fight each other first, then when they have virtually no way to defend themselves, you force their own machines to attack them. I see you really will go to any extreme to get what you want," Jenny said.

Smytus lifted the hand with the remote up into the air, and with a big grin on his face, he said "Of course we will. That is the most effective way, right,"

Smytus pressed one of the other buttons on the remote. The platform that Vexus was on rose even higher into the air and stopped at around forty feet from the top of the first platform. The upper fourth of the ship broke apart into a large intricate looking array of smaller machines that situated themselves all around the container Vexus was in. Some of the machines were stationary in the middle of the air. In all, they were situated in a spherical formation. The machines then transformed into several rod shapes.

"It's time for the ultimate test for Earth's greatest hero. Let's see you find a way out of this one," Smytus said still grinning as he pressed another button.

"No!" Jenny yelled as she started firing at the force field repeatedly.

As her lasers fizzled out each time, Vexus's orb started glowing without her control. She fought hard to keep it under control, but to no avail. Once the orb was fully operational, the other machines responded by pumping electricity into her body and drawing the energy waves out of her orb amplifying them. About ten seconds later, the array of machines were emitting visible waves of energy out into the world. The overwhelming power surge through Vexus's body was too much for her, and she finally let out a loud scream.

Jenny kept frantically firing at the force field hoping desperately that one shot would break through.


	28. Chapter 28

The commanding officer of the Army force that was in Philadelphia at the time yelled into a megaphone saying "Listen up soldiers. XJ9 is trying her hardest to break that force field while we're sitting here like lumps on a log. We have weapons of our own too, so let's help her bring it down. I know I don't have direct command over the police force, but I suggest you help out too. Ready your weapons, and fire at will."

All available military and police personnel along with a few armed citizens pointed their weapons at the shield and began firing repeatedly at it. Lasers, rockets, and all kinds of bullets from 50 caliber anti-tank rifles down to rounds from ordinary hand guns filled the sky. Jenny moved out of the direct path of the weapons' rounds and began charging for a much more powerful laser.

"_I rarely ever do this because it creates too much stress for my laser rifles and drains a lot of my power, but I have no choice_," Jenny thought to herself.

As the force field was being viciously pounded, Smytus and Krackus continued grinning. No one else, including Jenny could see their grins due to all the rapidly flashing lights, so they couldn't wonder why they were grinning.

Still they continued on, not yielding for second. The noise that this much firepower created shattered widows all around. The vibrations from all the combined rounds could be felt in air and slightly under their feet. It was an impressive yet frightening display that no one would probably ever forget.

Twenty two seconds later, Jenny finally released her charged blast, but didn't stop there. She kept firing smaller blasts behind it to increase the power of the explosion. She didn't charge too much power because she didn't plan on destroying herself or any of the humans on the ground. The explosion was enough to destroy a fifteen story building.

The speakers sounded with Smytus's voice yelling "You fools."

Smytus and Krackus started laughing as the explosion was absorbed by the force field.

"What? No way," Jenny yelled surprised.

Everyone else stopped firing once they realized what they were doing.

When the ship and its inhabitants were visible again, Krackus said "You really should've thought this through a little better before you decided to act so recklessly. You see, this force field was designed to absorb attacks and feed that energy to the ship. You've just given us enough energy to power the amplifier for another two days."

"That's not one of your usual tricks. Plus, that technology is way too complicated and rare for us to even begin to expect something like that," Jenny yelled.

"Yes, we really do think up the best shit when we aren't constantly ordered to focus our attention on what Vexus considered to be more important matters. Oh, and we should finish establishing connection to all those machines, right about…now. Good, now that that's settled, we can tie up one other loose end before we begin commanding the machines to destroy you all. I'm sure you all remember how XJ9 wasn't able to capture The Mudslinger. I knew you did. Yes, we were the ones that employed him, or should I say, brainwashed him into stealing the two million U.S. dollars we needed to buy a few parts from a relatively nonexistent crime organization. I choose not to disclose their name out of respect, but it still sucks for them, because they had no idea they were helping us with this plan. They will be destroyed along with all of you," Smytus explained.

"So, where exactly is he anyway?" Jenny yelled.

"Who knows? We left him in the wilderness somewhere after he gave us the money. He's probably dead, and soon you all will be too," Smytus explained.

Jenny paused for a moment and then said "Please…."

"Huh, what was that? You'll have to speak a little louder. The microphones didn't pick that up," Krackus said.

A few seconds later, Jenny screamed very loudly "Please, don't do this. I'm begging you!"

Everyone within range of the speakers around the world completely stopped what they were doing when they heard her plea.

Smytus's expression went from happy to disgusted, and he said "That sounds really insulting coming from you. Were you not the one that said that maybe you should've let us take over this planet for the humans' lack of gratitude? Didn't you begin to deeply despise them? Weren't you about to terminate yourself so you could finally get away from them?"

"Yes, I do seem to recall that being the case as well," Krackus said.

Jenny's voice and body started to tremble, and she said "Yes…I did say that. Yes…I did begin to despise them. And yes…I was about to kill myself for that very reason. Despite all that, I never wanted them to just be exterminated. I would never wish that upon anyone. As slaves, they would at least have a chance to fight for their freedom. But now, I don't even wish for slavery upon them anymore. I don't really despise them anymore either. They have their reasons for not accepting me, and I should respect that. They may never accept me, but that doesn't mean I'll sit here at let them all die for it."

Jenny then clenched her fists tightly, stared at them directly with a battle ready expression on her face, and yelled "I was created to protect them, and that's what I'll do. I'll die before I let you win."

Her speech shocked everyone, including Smytus, Krackus, and even Vexus.

While struggling intensely, Vexus thought to herself "What the hell for? Why risk your life for people who don't respect you, who don't even like you? They caused you so much pain, and you still wish to risk it all by defending them. I don't understand your logic behind all this. Why?"

A moment later, Smytus said "Hah, very well then. You will die right along with the worthless humans you couldn't separate yourself from."

He pressed another button on the remote causing all the machines that were taken control of to activate.

"Well, I guess it's time we sit back and watch the show. We do have front row seats after all," Smytus said followed by another maniacal laugh.

Everything from vehicles, helper robots, to robot pets for small children activated and started heading in the direction of the humans. Machines of all kinds suddenly turned on their masters, with only one purpose in their programming, to kill all humans and anyone else that gets in their way. Jenny turned around and headed downwards towards the city.


	29. Chapter 29

All around the world, people were fighting for their lives against the machines that were created to help and protect them. It's probably needless to say, but not everybody is trained for fighting, so a massive loss of life was to be expected whether the humans won in the end or not. As powerful as Jenny and her sisters are, even they cannot be in two places at once. That goes for Silver Shell and Melody as well.

The time finally came. They've seen it in movies, cartoons, comic books, and even read novels on the subject. The war of man against machine was now a reality, and not just another science fiction story. This also isn't just some crazy nightmare they can pinch their selves and wake up from. They never expected it to happen this way either. They assumed that most of their robots would one day be given artificial intelligence, then the machines would rebel, and that's how the war would start. That's why they avoided creating too many intelligent machines in the first place.

But they aren't being hunted by intelligent machines. These machines have simply been given a new primary objective in their programming. The machines don't even realize the atrocities that they are committing. In fact, they don't realize anything at all. So technically, they aren't doing anything wrong. Since they can't distinguish between right and wrong, they can't be fairly criticized for their actions. Completely emotionless, and completely devoid of thought, it's the kind of thing that makes people wonder how they even can move in the first place. This isn't an enemy that can be reasoned with. It's a true game of kill or be killed. There are no other rules. The only other option, however, is to run and hide. Only, against a pursuer that cannot experience fatigue, even running away becomes an extremely difficult challenge.

But who wants to live that way though? Who wants to live out the rest of their lives running and hiding? Some will inevitably chose that option, but others will not. These are the ones who will stand up and fight for their freedom and way of life.

For a large percentage of them though, this was the beginning of a horrible nightmare, with no perceivable end in sight.

* * *

As Jenny fought her way through the wave of machines, she thought to herself "_I can't believe this is actually happening. I really can't believe it. I'm seeing it, and I still can't believe. This is horrible. I've never seen so much blood. I've never heard so much screaming, and so many desperate cries for help. I never imagined that I would actually see small children get slaughtered right in front of me. I can't save them all. If only I was stronger. If only I was faster. I need more power, and I need it now more than ever_."

Melody then contacted all the XJs saying "Listen everyone. I think you should contact your mom right away. I believe it's time you exercised your other option."

"Oh yeah, the strength enhancers," Jenny said.

"Mom, it's me. I think now would be a good time to send us those strength enhancers," XJ6 said.

"Ok fine. I guess now is as good a time as ever. Just promise me that when you've reached you limit, that you will deactivate them immediately. I was being serious when I said they might destroy you," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Of course we will. We don't plan on dying any time soon. I do have one question though. Does that one hour rule apply to robots as well?" XJ5 asked.

"I forgot to mention that. For robots like you all, the estimated length as about three hours, as long as you don't push your selves too hard. XJ8 and 9 last up to four hours since they are much more durable. I've just sent them on their way. They should make it to you all in thirty minutes at the most. Try to stay alive until then," Ms. Wakeman said.

"What about XJ1?" XJ8 asked.

"XJ1 and I have already discussed this, and yes, she will be helping you all out soon. Her enhancer is different from any of yours due to her limitations, so it will take me about twenty minutes to install it on her. Of course, I've tried to talk her out of it, but she's determined to help out her sisters in any way she can instead of sitting around doing nothing. Brad and Tuck are having a difficult time deciding to go through with it since they realize the extreme danger involved, understandably, but I'm not really trying to encourage them either," Ms. Wakeman explained.

"That's okay. Just let them know that we'll understand if they don't want to take that risk," XJ4 said.

"I'll do that," Ms. Wakeman said as she pressed a button on a large container.

When it opened, Brad's and Tuck's eyes widened when they saw XJ1's enhancer.

* * *

In Tremorton, the mayor ordered the police force to round up all minors, elderly, and women with no military or police training and secure them in a shelter five miles away from the city. He spread the word to other cities of his plan so they might follow his example.

Brad, Tuck, and Ms. Wakeman were in the basement of their house, and the lights were off in the rest of the house, so it was assumed that no one was home. The Krusts had a private shelter of their own.

When they arrived at the shelter, the police and military personnel exited the vehicles first. They checked the area for any hostile machines. Their vehicles were older models that didn't have onboard computers, so they couldn't be controlled. Once they were sure they didn't find any, they started unloading all the passengers.

"I understand they want to protect the small children first, but I really do hate having to wait for them to go first," one of the male high school students said.

"That's easier for you to say Mitchell. You don't have young siblings like I do. I'm actually concerned about their safety myself," another male student said.

"It's not that I'm not concerned. I just want to live. I don't really care how heartless I sound right now," Mitchell said.

"Whatever you say man. Hey, look at that guy over there. Notice anything weird about him?" the other guy asked as he was looking at another male student through the window from another vehicle.

"Yeah. He looks unusually stressed out for one thing. He looks worse than most of us do right now," Mitchell said.

"Hey, that's that Jason guy. Wasn't he the one talking about making life more interesting? It's definitely more interesting now, and he looks more frightened than most of us. Fucking hypocrite," the other guy said.

"I don't know about that. I learned about this kinda stuff from my mom. She's a psychologist. From what she told me, I can see that he's probably worried about something completely different," a female middle school student explained.

"What do you think it is he's worried about," Mitchell asked.

"I have no clue. Why don't you guys ask him?" the girl asked.

"He never seems to care what anyone else is concerned about, so I shouldn't care what he's concerned about," Mitchell said.

* * *

When everybody was finally out of the vehicles, an officer with a megaphone said "Listen up people. This shelter has an above ground and an underground level that is connected directly to an old subway system. We will make sure that everyone who is unable to defend their selves is secured underground. Everyone else who feels they have the courage to fight should learn very quickly how to use a gun. We would never normally hand a weapon to a minor, but in this case, we really have no choice. The situation could very well become that desperate for us, so we are resorting to drastic measures."

Pretty much everyone was shocked by this.

"What, you can't be serious about giving guns to them. Most of them are still kids," A woman yelled.

"I don't think you heard him correctly ma'am. The situation could very well become that desperate for us. He wasn't exaggerating. Unlike you, I was in the first intergalactic war, and I've fought in two other battles since. I know what war is really like. It's not pretty or pleasant, and it's not supposed to be. It's life or death, not some sugar coated fairy tale, designed not to frighten little kids. We need to let them know now, that if we fail to protect them here, there's a good chance they will all be killed with no one left to come to their rescue," an older male war veteran explained.

After hearing this, most of their expressions went from frightened to very serious. Out of all the small children who could understand what was being said, a large portion of them started crying.

"Yes, that's it, cry. Get it out your systems now. The harsh reality of this situation, is that no matter how much you kick and scream when the enemy is near, if they are really intent on killing you, they will. The worst part about it is that our enemies are mindless robots. They don't know how to show mercy, so you can forget about asking for it," the veteran explained.

"Well said sir. I didn't want to lay it on you all quite as rough as he did, but he's telling you the truth," the officer with the megaphone said.

A few seconds later, everyone heard a faint buzzing sound in the distance coming from the woods about a hundred yards away. Three of the soldiers with sniper rifles immediately aimed in the direction of the noise. Everyone else who was armed aimed after the snipers did. Everyone who wasn't armed ran to other side of the building.

Once the target was visible, it was revealed to be an ordinary toy race car. Just to be safe, one of the snipers fired and shattered it into many small pieces.

"What was it?" one of the elementary students asked as everyone came out of hiding.

"Believe it or not, it was a toy race car. I find it quite messed up that we even have to fight against toys. For all we know, the next one that comes might have a bomb attached to it," a female soldier said.

Everyone turned around when they heard one of the vehicle's doors open. No one could see who or what it was because the sound was coming from behind the vehicle.

"Identify yourself," one of the soldiers commanded.

When the door closed, a person could be seen slowly coming from behind the vehicle holding a shotgun. Immediately, everyone who was armed pointed at the person and commanded the person to drop the weapon.

"You were…the ones…," a girl's voice said.

When they could finally see who this person was, one of the high school students said "Grace? What the hell are you doing with that?"

Everyone that knew her was surprised to see who it was.

"You were…the ones who said that…anyone else…who is willing to fight…should fight. Well, I'm willing. Can someone…please teach me…how to use this thing?" Grace said with a battle ready expression on her face.

Everyone was even more surprised that her out of everyone else was the first to volunteer.

"_Holy shit. She usually manages to creep everybody else out but me until now. This is the first time she's started to scare me_," Jason thought to himself.


	30. Chapter 30

Smytus and Krackus watched as Jenny pulverized a mobile crane, and then continued on to another machine. Smytus then noticed Krackus focusing on Jenny with great intensity.

"What's wrong with you, Krackus? You keep staring at XJ9 like a hawk," Smytus said.

"It's strange. I keep noticing…wait…there it is again. She keeps looking to the west as if she's waiting for something. Every couple of minutes, she'll do that for about one second," Krackus explained.

"Oh really? I didn't notice that before. Maybe she is waiting for something. Or maybe, you've just developed a serious hard on for her," Smytus said followed by a laugh.

Krackus glared at him and said "Very funny. I'm being serious. I really think she's waiting for something, but according to our radar, nothing is heading in this direction."

"Okay fine. I'll watch her for a…yes, your right, she did it just a second ago. I think she might actually be waiting for something," Smytus said.

Both Smytus and Krackus began staring in the westward direction to see if something was coming after all.

A minute later, after staring into the distance and looking at the radar screen several times, Smytus said "I don't get it. If she really is waiting for something, why hasn't it shown up yet?"

Jenny peeked at Smytus and Krackus from the corner of her eye and thought to herself "_Looks like my plan is working. As long as they keep staring in that direction, they won't be able to see the strength enhancers coming_."

* * *

XJ7 was the first to receive her enhancer. She was confused by its appearance when she saw it from a distance. It was shaped like a discus and was about as wide as a basketball. It stopped about three feet in front of her and tilted so the side that had a large XJ7 sign facing her.

It played back a recording of Ms. Wakeman's voice saying "XJ7 confirmed. Initiating merger now."

XJ7 felt a strong surge move through her body paralyzing her movement and forcing her body to rise off the ground by three feet. The XJ7 sign on the disc disappeared and the disc began spreading outward like a liquid and surrounded her body. It wasn't actually liquid at all. It was actually trillions of nano machines, that when reshaping their selves, they look like liquid.

XJ7's body absorbed and incorporated all of the nano machines into herself and distributed them equally throughout her entire body. She then landed back on the ground and looked down at herself.

"I don't look or feel any different," XJ7 said.

A few seconds later, she felt a sudden rush of energy pulsing through her body. It was so much energy, that her body actually started glowing with heat. The blue paint burned off and was replaced by a much darker shade of blue, except it was paint, it was armor.

When the heat dissipated, a recording of Ms. Wakeman's voice played from inside her body saying "Merger process completed."

Then a small timer set to two hours and twenty five displayed at the corner of her eyes letting her know how the estimated amount of time she had before she would reach her limit. A set of instructions on how to deactivate the enhancer were then saved into a file in her hard drive.

"Now that's cool," a teenage boy of about 15 said to XJ7.

Keep in mind that XJ7 rarely smiles, so when she did this time, it felt really awkward. Nevertheless, she finally didn't feel so worthless for once. Not only that, she felt amazing, like she could literally do anything.

The first thing she did after that was locate the first machine to destroy. It was a military helicopter that was heading towards the city fast. It had no pilot, and its weapons were armed and ready to fire at any moment. She punched in its direction creating a visible shock wave that flew through the air at blazing speed. When it hit the helicopter, most of its frame peeled back some, the windows shattered, and the propellers dented up badly causing the helicopter to start falling to the ground. She flew after it also at blazing speed and caught it in the middle of the air. It was barely heavy at all to her now that her strength level was so high. She aimed and threw it far away into public swimming pool.

As she watched it explode, she contacted Ms. Wakeman saying "Hey mom. I just tested the enhancer out. As far as I can tell, it's a complete success. This ought to be much easier now."

"You sound happier than usual XJ7. But don't you let it go to your head. Pay close attention to that timer and take it very seriously. None of you are built to feel pain, so you'll barely be able to tell that it's tearing you apart when it starts happening," Ms. Wakeman explained.

XJ7 sighed and said "Yes ma'am. I understand. I'll try my best to be careful."

"Hey, it looks like mine is coming in right now," XJ5 said.

"Mine too," XJ6 said.

"Same here," XJ4 said.

When XJ5 transformed, her green paint was replaced with bright silver armor. The small satellite dish at her base grew twice its normal size, and instead of only one pin, she now had four. Each pin was designed to focus on a separate target. They could fire either an electromagnetic pulse that could short circuit the machines' motherboards or a powerful sound wave. The sound wave could either be concentrated or wide spread.

When XJ6 transformed, her green paint was replaced with blood red armor. She now had the ability to extend blades from any part of her body. Also, she could make the blades vibrate at a very high frequency making them able to slice through almost any target with ease.

When XJ4 transformed, her bright purple paint was replaced with much darker purple armor. She could make any of her four arms increase in size and shape. She could also rotate her body at blazing speeds. If her arms are shaped like helicopter blades while rotating, at close range, she could suck a target into her blades and slice them to pieces. It would be like getting sucked into a jet turbine.

After practicing with them for a few moments, they all contacted Ms. Wakeman and the others to confirm that theirs were also a success. Shortly after that, XJ2 sent a message in Morse code saying that hers also arrived.

When XJ2 transformed, her grey paint was replaced with orange armor. Her laser cannon grew twice as wide and three times as long. The enhancer also forces her body to remain stable when she has a hiccup so she won't miss so much.

The primary boosts to all of the enhancers are strength, speed, and defense. The weapons are extra.

When XJ2 sent her message, Ms. Wakeman said "That's good. Just try to hold on XJs 3, 8, and 9. You'll get yours in a few more minutes. I'm almost done with XJ1. She'll be joining you all soon."

"I just don't know how much longer I can keep distracting Smytus and Krackus. Hopefully they won't figure out what I'm doing before ours get here. It would be a shame for them to shoot the enhancers out of the sky before they get to XJ3 and me," Jenny thought to herself.


	31. Chapter 31

Learning how to use some of the available weapons was easier said than done for some of them. Most of the weapons were older model rifles and machine guns. Those were the easier ones to learn to use. Since there were more people volunteering to protect the children and the other defenseless people than there were easy to handle weapons, some of them were stuck with the more advanced rocket launchers laser rifles. If you have difficulty imagining a fourteen year old being held responsible for handling a laser rifle, just realize that they also had difficulty believing it even after seeing it. The rationale behind allowing this, of course, is because a lot of the fourteen year old boys were stronger than a lot of the adult women.

After teaching everybody how to turn the safety on and off each type of weapon, one soldier spoke into a megaphone saying "I can't possibly stress this enough people. Keep the safety on until you need to use the weapon. None of us can afford to have one of you accidentally blow one or more of your teammate's heads off when we're not even fighting the robots. That's all for now."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I saw some guy lose his head on my sixth week of basic training for that same reason," Another soldier said.

"Come on man, you're scaring the kids even more than they already are," Another soldier said.

"What's she looking at?" an elementary school student asked while pointing at Grace.

Everybody focused their attention on Grace who was looking into the sky. Everyone looked up at the sky as well, but no one saw anything heading in their direction.

"Hey, what're you looking at anyway Grace?" a high school student asked.

A moment later, Grace tightened the grip on her shot gun with both hands and said "Skyway Patrol."

Everyone else looked up when they started hearing the sound of many jets heading in their direction. When they could finally see them, the noise from the jets drowned out the sound of the cheering. About sixty jets passed overhead in a minute's time before they were too far away to be heard.

"It's about fucking time," one of the soldiers yelled while holding his rifle in the air.

"I heard that. They're always showing up late. They're about a hundred times worse than the cops. I'm not sure I should be cheering for them," another soldier said.

"Hey, some of us cops take that offensively," a female officer said.

"This is no time to be arguing with each other okay. Anyway, how did you know they were coming when none of us could even hear them Grace?" a woman asked.

After another moment of silence with no response and still looking into the sky and trembling with anger, Grace said "They should turn…they should turn back now. They will all…be murdered."

"They may be late really often, but they can take care of themselves. Don't worry about it kid," a female soldier said.

Grace focused her attention on the soldier with a surprised expression on her face.

"Don't tell me you haven't heard how well they fought in the first intergalactic war? They might have new members now, but they have always proven themselves to be the best," the female soldier said confidently.

Most of the others agreed with her and continued with their preparations.

"_You don't even have a clue lady. Grace isn't surprised at how well Skyway Patrol can fight; she's surprised that you actually have that much faith in them. She probably thinks you're a fucking lunatic right now_," Jason thought to himself.

* * *

XJ8 finally received her enhancer as well. When XJ8 transformed, her dark blue paint was replaced with a dull black armor and her eyes glowed a bright red. The only new ability she was given besides the basics was to be able to perform her transformations much faster than before.

* * *

"Just a few more seconds," XJ9 thought to herself.

Smytus and Krackus were beginning to wonder if their theory was correct in the first place. Finally, they heard their radar start beeping. They looked at it to see that something was about two hundred fifty yards away from the city and moving fast, but it wasn't coming from the direction Jenny was looking, it was coming from the opposite direction.

"Whatever it is, shoot it out of the sky now," Krackus ordered.

One of the ship's cannons pointed at the unknown object and opened fire on it. Every shot was intercepted by Jenny's and XJ3's projectiles. A second later, Smytus and Krackus realized that it wasn't one, but two objects flying right beside each other.

XJ3 made one mistake and a laser hit the objects. It turned out that the enhancers had force fields of their own, so they were safe. They slowly positioned themselves in front of Jenny and XJ3 and began scanning them.

"What the hell are those things?" Smytus yelled.

"Hey Smytus. I'm not sure what those are either, but I think it would be a good time to use our backup plan," Krackus suggested.

A recording of Ms. Wakeman's voice played back from the enhancers simultaneously saying "XJ3 confirmed. Initiating merger now," and "XJ9 confirmed. Initiating merger now."

"Merger?" both Smytus and Krackus asked simultaneously.

Everyone watched the bazaar transformations take place. Ten seconds later, XJ3's body was visible again. She rose up into the air, her very light blue paint burned off and was replaced by dark green armor. Her scissor-like hands grew to over five times their original size. Her body expanded to over twice her original size and visible reinforcements formed round all of the joints that had trouble keeping themselves together before. Her most noticeable reinforcement was the fact that she now had distinguishable forearms, for reinforcement, and to keep the large hands from looking so awkward.

"Surprising, but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," Smytus said.

"I don't think she's the one we need to worry about. If XJ9 hasn't even emerged from inside that blob yet, that must mean that her modifications will be really special," Krackus said.

A small hole in the force field surrounding the ship about the size of a basketball opened up. Both Smytus and Krackus fired five inch wide lasers from their hands through the hole. The hole closed immediately after the lasers passed through. Both lasers made contact at the same time causing an explosion strong enough to create a small crater in the ground around the blob. XJ3 moved out of the way with ease. When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that not a scratch or dent was put in the blob.

"What the hell? You've got to be kidding me," Smytus yelled.

A few moments later, the blob began to shrink. Jenny absorbed the enhancer into her body. She rose up into the air, and an almost blinding light emitted from her body. Her top and skirt shattered and became part of her new armor. When the light disappeared, she was no longer blue and white, she was now a somewhat dark gold and white. Her new armor fit over most of her body like rubber spandex, from her neck down to almost the bottom of her feet. Her arms and hands were also covered. The white portion of the bottom of her feet was still the same as before. The white portion of her face also remained the same, but the blue was now gold, including her hair. Her belly bolt was now covered by what looked like a round flat gem. The colored portions of her eyes were now white with black outlines, even though she wasn't furious.

When she landed on the ground, everyone including XJ3 stared at her speechless. Jenny turned around, pointed her left index finger at a large construction robot, and fired a small ball of bright white energy at it destroying it with ease when she would normally have a somewhat difficult time trying.

"This is not good at all. This was supposed to be a piece of cake," Smytus said angrily.

* * *

"Hey mom, I'm sensing crazy amounts of energy coming from Jenny," XJ6 said.

"I know you are. My computer is telling me the same thing," Ms. Wakeman said grinning.


	32. Chapter 32

Everyone watched speechlessly as Jenny and XJ3 almost effortlessly destroyed each machine that came their way. The machines were basically lining up to be destroyed as they charged after the sisters head on. XJ3 would launch her claw hands from her wrists and cut through the machines like paper, and Jenny kept firing the same small white balls of energy. Since they realized that it was working, there was no need to alter their attack pattern for the time being.

In less than two minutes, they had together destroyed over six hundred machines of all kinds. As their numbers grew fewer, the sisters began walking forward after the machines. They were no longer the ones being hunted. At this point, it was no longer a battle, it was a massacre. They both had cold stern expressions on their faces. They hated the fact that they were destroying fellow machines this way, but they would not allow them to take the lives of any more people. All the XJs were experiencing the same emotion as they plowed through the machines.

* * *

Melody contacted XJ4 from the other end of the city saying "XJ4. I don't think you need my help anymore. I'll move on to another city and help other people."

"I see your point. I think I can handle this without you now. Thanks for the help though," XJ4 said.

"If this lasts longer than two hours, I'll return to help you out when you're forced to deactivate your enhancer," Melody said.

"Okay then. I'll be waiting," XJ4 said.

Sheldon also realized the same thing that Melody did and let XJ2 know that he would return in two hours.

* * *

It took a little longer than expected, but XJ1 finally had her enhancer installed. To put it more accurately, she was finally installed into her enhancer. Her nano machine technology wasn't nearly as sophisticated as the other XJs since she is the oldest model, so her upgrades weren't nearly as impressive. She was basically in the same situation Sheldon was in. She was in the cockpit of a large walking tank.

"I'm sorry I didn't spend that much time on you. I know I should have. One of these days I will definitely upgrade you into a more efficient robot," Ms. Wakeman explained.

A message appeared on Ms. Wakeman's computer screen saying "At least I can keep mine on for days if I want to. Don't worry me…sorry…don't worry about me."

"_I also need to upgrade your language software as well_," Ms. Wakeman thought to herself.

"I'd be lying if I said I'm not worried. Just try to be as careful as possible okay," Ms. Wakeman said.

Another message appeared on the screen saying "Okay."

The roof of the house opened up as XJ1 started her engine. She looked down at the platform feeling a little strange that she was twenty feet off the ground. Being taller than all of her sisters was a new experience indeed. When the roof was opened wide enough, she took off flying into the air. She decided that the first place to start destroying machines was Tremorton. She figured that it wouldn't take very long considering that it wasn't a very large city.

* * *

Krackus began to grow impatient waiting for Smytus to agree with him.

"What are you waiting for Smytus? We need to use our back up strategy now," Krackus said.

Smytus growled and said "Fine. I guess we have no other choice."

Smytus activated the speakers once again and said "Listen up XJ9. Did you really think the game was over already? We're only getting started. I doubt your fancy upgrades will help you against this."

Smytus pushed another button on his remote.

"I don't see anything happening," XJ9 said.

A moment later, an odd noise could be heard from above. As far as the eye could see, in every direction, pod-like shapes filled the sky and each one appeared to be slowly growing larger as they got closer.

"You see that XJ9? I told you before I had many robots at my disposal. Only, while you knew me as Mr. Green, there was no way you could guess just how many robots I had. There's approximately three billion of them. That's about zero point four robots per human, and they're scattered evenly throughout the Earth's sky heading straight down. They may not be more numerous than the humans, but they are certainly much more powerful than the machines they've been fighting so far. You know there's no way you can get to them in time, even with your new strength," Krackus explained.

"I understand that quite well. You didn't need to explain that part to me. I might not be able to get to all of them before they land, but I'll definitely get as many as we can," Jenny said as she pointed her hands upwards.

Until now, Jenny had her hands closed into fists. When opened, it was revealed that the same kind of flat round disk that was over her belly bolt, was also on the palms of her hands. First, the disk over her belly bolt shined with a bright white light. As it remained that way, it sent large amounts of energy up through her body, and concentrated it into the disks on her hands. The bright light from the disks created the illusion that half of the dark gold on her forearms had turned bright yellow.

"Now this is something new," Smytus said.

Jenny charged for another few seconds, and then started firing hundreds of the small balls of energy. Her arms aimed and fired so rapidly that it appeared as though her arms were blurs. She flew up into the sky straight upwards while still firing. In less than five seconds, she was about one hundred and eighty meters in the air. She stopped there once she realized she was high enough to see every robot within her range of sight. She continued firing until every one of them was destroyed.

When Jenny stopped firing, Ms. Wakeman contacted her saying "I would've done the same thing you did, but just remember that every time you push it that hard, you lose time. You lost ten minutes with that stunt you just pulled."

A message appeared on the screen saying "Yeah, I know. I'm paying attention to the timer. Do you have any idea how I can get around that shield? I know that they want me to waste my time and energy flying around the world destroying these robots. It would be much faster if I could just break the shield and destroy the ship."

"I've been trying to figure that out myself. I know one way it can be done, but neither of you nor I have anything that can pull it off. All of your attacks are designed for transferring large amounts of energy from inside your body out, not the other way around. I know how to build a device that can absorb large amounts of energy, but it would take weeks. I never thought you'd actually need something like that in your body," Ms. Wakeman explained.

Another message appeared on the screen saying "Do you know of another method, or do I have to figure something out on my own?"

"There is one other way, but you would need to feed the ships power core with enough energy to cause it to explode. I scanned the power core, and even if you and XJ3 sacrificed yourselves, you wouldn't have nearly enough power. Even if you did succeed, you'd create an explosion powerful enough to destroy that city, not to mention the deadly radiation you'd spread from the ships radioactive core. That is not a good plan," Ms. Wakeman explained.

Another message appeared on the screen saying "Okay, I get the picture. I'll just have to figure something out."

The entire time Jenny was conversing with her mom, she was slowly lowering herself to the ground.

When she landed, Krackus asked "So XJ9, why aren't you flying off to go save your precious humans?"

Jenny grinned and said "I'm not stupid. If I go flying around the world, you'll have more than enough time to think up something new. I will find a way to crack that shell eventually, just you wait."

"Just as I suspected. I knew something was strange about the way you've been calculating every movement. You've been making sure that you use as little power as possible for every attack. You're working under a strict time limit, aren't you?" Krackus asked.

Jenny frowned when she heard what he said.

"Why didn't I think of that? It makes sense. Your new powers might be impressive, but no one can last forever. That's the real reason why you're not going robot hunting, isn't it?" Smytus asked.

"Okay, fine. You got me. The question is, how long can I last? I bet you can't figure that one out," Jenny asked.

"No we can't, but I'm sure that if you haven't tried to break this shield yet, that you have already exhausted every reasonable possibility that you can think of. If that's the case, we can just sit back and relax while your power runs out. So much for all that time your mommy spent making that new outfit for you," Smytus said followed by another laugh.

"By all means, go ahead and try to break the shield. I'm sure it'll be interesting to watch you try," Krackus said.

* * *

Still struggling, Vexus gave her entire life a lot of thought. Most importantly, she gave the last few years of her life a lot of thought, from the time she met Jenny until now. Never before had she met a robot willing to sacrifice him or herself to save a member of an organic species. She had always resented the intelligent organics vain concepts of superiority, so she and so many other robots forced themselves to believe that they were the superior ones as an act of rebellion, but there stood in front of her a robot who apparently didn't believe that she was superior. Any robot she met before would've tried to destroy the human race to prove their superiority, but Jenny wanted to fit in with the human race, to be considered an equal among them.

"_How can someone who has so much power still want to be considered an equal to those who don't have nearly as much? The concept is far too frustrating to try to understand. What is it about being amongst the humans that is so attractive? Why does she yearn for it?_" Vexus thought to herself.

Vexus's vision was beginning to blur slightly. The energy surging through her body was finally starting to damage her circuitry. She stared at Jenny who was becoming frustrated that she couldn't find a way to break the shield. Her attention then focused on Smytus and Krackus who were giggling and making horribly insulting comments…as if that was something new. Her eyes wandered scanning the city. She realized that at this rate, it wouldn't be much of a city anymore.

Her eyes kept wandering until she noticed a survivor. A small child of around six years old: a little boy. She didn't know why, but she couldn't keep her eyes off the boy. The child was bleeding from his face, hands, and a large gash in the side of his right arm. Strangely enough, the boy wasn't crying. He appeared to be looking for something, but what? The boy looked at the numerous bloody puddles with people lying in them all around him. She figured the boy was too young to understand the concept of death, and that's probably why he wasn't crying when he saw them.

She finally took her gaze off the boy and looked back at the dead humans. For the first time in her life, she had begun to feel a strange emotion caused by the sight of these lumps of bloody flesh.

"_Is this what it's like to feel sorry for the dead?_" She thought to herself.

Thousands have fallen either at her hands or the hands of her subjects, organic creatures and robots, but she never felt this way about them. In her deep thought, she'd completely forgotten about the amplifier or the overwhelming sensation. In fact, she felt as though she were in a strange dream.

"_What the hell is this? Why am I feeling this way? There just humans; simple organic creatures. They've never done anything for me, so why am I…wait…I remember now. That girl Charlotte. She helped me. She showed mercy when I never would…to me. All this time…I hated organic creatures because of the oppression my people suffered at the hands of our creators. That was so long ago. Have I really forgotten? I didn't hate them because I think I'm superior. I hated them because of what they did to me and my father. I forced myself to forget the true reason and created a reason for myself. What the hell am I thinking? I should be focused on destroying them. I shouldn't let these thoughts intrude…but I…_" Vexus thought to herself.

Her vision was starting to blur even more and was starting to feel like she was going to faint. Time seemed to pass very slowly. Every second that passed seemed like hours to her. Her entire world was becoming dimmer. She felt as though her long existence was coming to an end.

Suddenly, she regained a small amount of consciousness when she heard a voice in the distance. A strange voice seemed to be calling out to her. This voice sounded oddly familiar, but she couldn't remember where she heard it before. She kept listening for a while until a very vivid image of her daughter calling out to her shown in her mind. It was strange. She seemed to be in terrible emotional agony.

She finally snapped out of her trance just enough to say "Vega."

She didn't speak loudly enough for anyone else to hear it. The sound of the amplifier drowned out her voice.

She looked around and saw the little boy again. This time, he was on his knees pushing against one of the bodies on the ground and crying out. She focused her hearing in the boy's direction to hear what he was saying.

"Mom…mom…wake up. Mom…why won't you wake up?" The boy screamed with tears filling his eyes.

The boy kept screaming repeatedly. The more he pushed her, the more blood got on his hands. A portion of Vexus's dormant memory resurfaced. She remembered trying to hold the oil inside her father's wounded leg with her small hands. No matter how hard she tried, the oil kept spilling out and got all over her hands. Being only a wounded leg, her father survived this incident, but this boy's mother did not.

"_Right now, they're doing some of the same things to the humans that our creators did to us. I was also doing the same thing. Maybe I have been wrong about them. Maybe they don't really deserve this. No, I've been doing this far too long to turn back…_" She thought to herself.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a motor. A cement truck had turned a corner and was now rolling in the direction of the child. She looked down to see Smytus pointing at the truck. A few seconds later, she saw Jenny turn around and start running towards the child.

Jenny could've made it in time, but Vexus wasn't thinking about that at all. The only thing she could think about was protecting that child, and at any cost.

An overwhelming rush of emotion seemed to fill every inch of her being, and she screamed "No more. I can't take this anymore."

Everyone, including Jenny and XJ3 turned around and focused on Vexus. She continued screaming, and the screams were much louder than they were when the amplification process started. Jenny reacted to a shift in the energy coming from the amplifier by turning back around and seeing that the truck stopped rolling and shut off. Not taking any chances, she destroyed the truck.

She returned her attention to Vexus who was still screaming and trying with all her might to pull herself out of her restraints.

"What the hell has gotten into her? Give up Vexus. If you keep trying, you'll tear your body apart," Smytus warned.

Not listening to a word that Smytus said, Vexus kept pulling at the restraints. She managed to pull one arm free, but it was badly damaged in the process.

"What do you think you're doing? You'll kill yourself if you keep this up," Krackus yelled.

Vexus pointed one finger at the spot on top of her head directly under the orb and jammed her finger through her armor. She tore off a small portion of her armor, reached in, and pulled out the main control chip for the orb. It still had a few wires connected to it.

"No, you'll ruin our plan," Smytus yelled.

Smytus pushed a button on his remote causing the restraints to start tugging on her fingers to prevent her from crushing the chip. Vexus screamed again, and with an enormous amount of effort, she overpowered the restraints and crushed the chip into many small pieces.

First the orb deactivated, then the amplifier deactivated as well. Soon after, the power running into her body stopped flowing in.

"Vexus, you bitch. Do you have any idea how long it took me to find you? Now look at what you've done. You ruined a major part of our plan," Smytus yelled.

Vexus laughed a little and said "I think you're missing something. The last thing…I did before…I destroyed the chip was…"

Vexus's eyes closed and she finally fainted. Her head and arm dropped with the pieces of the chip falling out of her hand.

"Did what?" Smytus asked confused.

"I don't know why she did it, but I'll have to thank her later…maybe," Jenny said grinning.

"What the hell are you so happy about?" Smytus asked as both him and Krackus turned around to see Jenny standing about ten feet in front of them.

"That's right boys. You're force field is down," Jenny said still grinning.


	33. Chapter 33

Both Smytus and Krackus looked around nervously just to make sure it wasn't just some kind of illusion.

"I know it's a little hard to absorb, but your mighty force field is gone. It's just something you're going to have live with for the short time you have left," Jenny said as she punched the inside of her left palm with her right fist.

Smytus growled and said "This is bullshit. We spent months on this plan. Krackus, can we get the shield running again?"

"First of all, we would have to get XJ9 off the platform and away from the ship. But no, Vexus managed to fry the circuits, so we can't reactivate the shield. There is some good news however; my scanner indicates that only the machines within a hundred miles of here have deactivated. The rest are still active," Krackus explained.

"So the game continues then, but it looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way. We don't know how powerful XJ9 really is, so we should attack her together. Plus, we still have to worry about her little sister over there," Smytus said.

"So, are you just going to talk all day, or are you two going to fight? Whether or not you make the first move, we don't plan on letting you live much longer. Neither of you deserve any mercy for what you've done," Jenny said.

"And don't expect any mercy from us either," Smytus said as he got into a fighting stance.

Krackus also got into a similar stance. The disk over Jenny's belly bolt lit up along with the ones on her palms. XJ3 moved in much closer to the ship and waited for one of them to make the first move. Jenny sent her a message a few moments earlier telling her to wait until one of them makes a move so she can determine whether or not she even stood a chance against Smytus and Krackus.

"I'm ready whenever you are," Jenny said.

* * *

Over four hundred Skyway Patrol jets and over fifty of their helicopters were headed towards the source of the problem. They planned on an all out assault against Smytus and Krackus. They also figured that this would be a good time to finally destroy Vexus as well.

One of the jet pilots spoke into an onboard radio communicator saying "Captain, we'll be arriving in Philadelphia in under a minute."

The captain responded by saying "Understood. All right everyone, prepare your weapons and be ready to attack as soon as we arrive. Their ship's force field might be down, but we don't know what kind of defenses the enemy still has. Do your best to take them out as quickly as possible."

"Sir, what about XJ9 and her sister? We might hit them too," Another soldier pointed out.

"We need to do everything in our power to destroy the enemy, even at the cost of whomever happens to be nearby. The world's population is more important than a few robots. I shouldn't have to tell you that," the captain said.

The soldier sighed and said "Sir, yes sir."

All the jets' and helicopters' weapons were ready to fire at any time. It would only be another twenty eight seconds until they reached their destination.

* * *

Smytus, Krackus, Jenny, and XJ3 stared at each other completely motionless waiting for somebody to make even the slightest move. So far, none of them had come up with a good plan of attack. Due to all of the new upgrades, they were basically back to square one again, none of them really knew much about each other's abilities. This made it a little difficult to decide on their first move.

About five seconds later, all of them simultaneously detected a large number of machines headed their way. As soon as Smytus and Krackus realized who it was, a menacing grin formed on each of their faces. As soon as Jenny and XJ3 realized who it was, they started to panic. They weren't expected anything like this at all.

"No, this is not good. All right, listen XJ3. Get that boy out of the city now. I'll try to save the soldiers," Jenny yelled.

The jets and helicopters slowed down as they began to position themselves around the city. Some of them began firing immediately as XJ3 grabbed the boy and started heading away from the city as quickly as possible. The boy kicked and screamed commanding her to put him down so he could continue trying to wake her mother. Smytus began firing back at the soldiers while dodging their attacks at the same time. Krackus entered the ship to manually operate the ship's weapons.

While also dodging, Jenny quickly matched her new communicator's radio frequency with Skyway Patrol's and yelled "This is me, XJ9. What the hell were you all thinking by coming here? You're no match for them. You're all going to die if you don't get out of here now."

"You do realize this is a private channel, don't you?" the captain asked.

"I don't give a damn about that right now. If you don't order your men to abort right away, you're going to lose them all," Jenny yelled.

By this time, many of the soldiers were already dead, and they had yet to scratch the surface of defeating Smytus or Krackus. Vexus got hit by a few bullets, but she was lucky enough not to get hit in any vital places. She would've continued to getting hit if it weren't for the fact that the ship's laser cannons and Smytus's hand lasers were making the aircrafts drop like flies.

"Ah, so this must be what it's like to play one of those video games I hear so much about," Smytus said followed by another maniacal laugh.

Jenny tried to deflect Smytus's and the ship's projectiles with her energy balls, but the chaos was too fast and random to keep up with.

"Don't you see? You've already lost over half of your men in under two minutes, and you've haven't even begun to put a dent in Smytus or Krackus. I'm begging you, order all of your men to retreat now," Jenny pleaded.

After finally realizing how futile their efforts were, the captain finally said "Dammit, she's right. We're not getting anywhere with this strategy. All right everyone, retreat immedi…"

The captain had been shot down before he could finish his command. In a panic, the remaining Skyway Patrol members turned around and tried their best to escape. The helicopters were unfortunately too slow, so the only ones that managed to escape were some of the ones in jets. To be exact, only thirty four units out of the initial four hundred managed to escape.

"XJ9 was right Krackus. Those fools didn't stand a chance," Smytus yelled.

Jenny screamed, and then yelled "You heartless monsters. You knew they were no match for you, and you still slaughtered them without a second thought. How can someone with an intelligent mind have no room for mercy at all?"

"That's because showing mercy is for the foolish," Krackus said as he emerged from the ship.

"That's right. If you have an agenda, a goal, you should be willing to do anything it takes to accomplish that goal. The reason a lot of humans are still in poverty, is because they weren't willing to break those silly laws that have been put in place. One of the sad truths in life is that in order to become rich, a lot of the time you have to at least done one thing that would be considered wrong. My point is that if you allow anything to get in the way of your goal, to hold you back, your chances of achieving it decreases sharply. One of these days, we will be the rulers of this universe, and the human race just happens to be one of many stepping stones in our way. In any case, the human race has been a great thorn in our sides for a while now, and we intend to remove those thorns," Smytus explained.

"You're telling me that when you're done here, you'll go and repeat these horrible crimes over and over again. There's just no way in hell I'm going to allow you to get away with doing that to people who don't deserve it," Jenny yelled.

Jenny charged a lot of energy into those three disks again and began flying straight forward charging after Smytus head on.

"Yes, I got her mad. Now her judgment will be poor. There's no way she'll be able to dodge this punch," Smytus said as he focused a lot of power into his left arm.

When Jenny was within range, Smytus quickly punched downward. His punch was so fast that his arm became surrounded in a vacuum. When his fist was about two inches away from her face, Jenny stopped abruptly landing her feet on the ground. She disappeared from Smytus's sight causing him to think "_What the…_?" Before he could finish the sentence in his mind, he noticed that he was now moving to the left at an amazing speed. Before he even thought about trying to stop, he crashed into a nearby brick wall.

Smytus got up as quickly as he could and looked up at Jenny who was still in the same position she was a few seconds ago. She was floating in the middle of the air with her right elbow pointed in Smytus's direction. She was facing the same direction that she was when she charged after him.

Smytus touched his cheek and realized that she elbowed him in the side of his face. The evidence was quite clear since he now had a dent on his face. Still in the same position, Jenny turned her head to face Smytus and gave him a very sharp glare.

"Wow Smytus. I hit you hard enough to have ripped your old body in half. I see you weren't lying about your modifications. This is going to take longer than I thought," Jenny said.

Smytus looked to his left at the ground to see that the shockwave from his punch formed a three and a half foot long five inch wide line of shattered asphalt in the road.

He looked back at Jenny, grinned, and then said "I see that aging woman hasn't lost it after all. You're definitely a lot stronger than I thought you were. And no, Krackus wasn't exaggerating about our modifications. Here's another one."

The dent in his cheek repaired itself in only three seconds.

"That's pretty fast. You could never do that before. How did you manage to get these upgrades anyway?" Jenny asked.

"I made these modifications. Since we were finally free to make our own decisions without Vexus interfering, I was able to spend as much time as I wanted trying to make our bodies stronger. Do you see now what Smytus has been trying to tell you? It becomes very difficult to achieve your goals when you're forced to live by other people's standards. That's one reason why we despise you so much. A major part of your goal is to fit into the human's standards of living. You willingly hold yourself back from achieving your potential. That's something we'll probably never understand," Krackus explained.

Jenny landed on the ground, looked at Krackus, and then said "I don't really expect you to understand. It's not like you'll have that much time to try anyway. It's over for you two."

"We'll just see about that then, won't we?" Smytus asked.


	34. Chapter 34

Vexus may have managed to deactivate some of the machines, but wasn't able to deactivate any of Smytus's robots. This was very bad for those who were unable to defend themselves. Anyone without a weapon of some kind was basically a sitting duck.

Even if a person had a weapon, surviving was still a lot easier said than actually done.

This was the case even for Melody and Sheldon. They didn't have amazing upgrades like the XJs had. Silver Shell wasn't even as powerful as Melody, and Melody was now officially weaker than XJ1 for the time being. They may have been able to defend themselves quite well, but from time to time, they would take damage. Eventually, the repeated damage would add up and render them both unable to continue. It was unfortunate that their auto repair functions weren't quite as advanced as the XJs. Despite that, they continued to fight.

* * *

It hadn't been very long since the people at the shelter had been assigned locations to look out for machines, and many of them were already on edge. Kids who haven't even graduated middle school yet had volunteered to risk their lives to protect the defenseless. These weren't trained soldiers. They weren't even old enough to join the military yet, and they're already having their first war experience.

Most of the people there, even some of the police, were shaking like leaves. They've never experienced such paralyzing fear before. They knew that at any moment, they could die.

"I know I might be asking too much from you guys, but could you try to calm down a little bit. I've pretty much gotten over my fears a long time ago, but seeing you like this is actually making me nervous," a soldier said.

"You are asking too much," A female high school student said with a trembling voice.

"I thought so," the soldier said.

"You know very well we're not fucking trained commandos like you guys. We haven't even been through basic training yet, and you expect us to be calm. If it weren't for the fact that my little sister and my mom were in that shelter right now, I wouldn't be out here risking my life," A male high school student yelled while trying his best not to start crying.

"I know how you all feel right now, but if you're still whimpering and crying when something actually does show up, it'll be quite difficult for you to fight. Your chances of being killed are so much higher in the condition that you're in, so I suggest you wipe your tears now if you want your chances of survival to go up. If you can't protect yourself, how do you expect to protect your families and friends?" a male soldier yelled.

"And what war movie did you get that line from?" a middle school student asked.

Before the soldier had a chance to comment, everybody reacted to the clicks of two guns that had their safety mechanisms turned off. Grace and one of the snipers turned theirs off at the exact same time.

"I know I saw something. Turn off your safeties now and point in that direction," the soldier said softly.

Everyone did as he said. They were hoping that it was just an animal in the woods, but they weren't planning on taking any chances.

A male robot's voice was heard coming from the woods saying "Whispering now won't do you much good. You idiots shouldn't yell so much. I might have missed you entirely if you had remained quiet."

The robot's voice echoed making it difficult to pin point his location. His voice sounded as if it was coming from more than one location at a time.

"But I thought we were only fighting machines," an officer said.

"You must not have heard the announcement earlier. Just a few minutes ago, lord Smytus commanded us to cover this planet, search for survivors, and exterminate them. But this is such a sad sight that I'm seeing. The militaries of this planet are using kids to fight their battles. What were you thinking? You know they stand far less of a chance of winning than you do," the robot said.

"Don't let him get to you. He's trying to break our concentration by putting fear in our hearts. If you're too afraid, you might get up and start running. The moment you do that, you become more vulnerable. You'll be more easily spotted and killed that way. All this camouflage will do you no good if you're moving around too frantically. Do not break up our formation," another soldier said.

"Ah, so you humans can give good advice after all. It's so boring killing easy targets. The harder you make it for me to find you, the more fun I'll have. Let the game begin," the robot said.

As the robot began moving around through the trees, something else unusual took place. Usually, it would be Jason that would notice something odd about Grace. This time it was Grace that noticed something strange about Jason.

She focused on him just barely from the corner of her right eye making sure she didn't lose track of the robot. She noticed that he was not only afraid of the robot, but he also seemed to be afraid of everybody else. After trying to come up with a reason behind Jason's fear, she finally came up with a theory that she kind of wished she didn't have.

"_I hope you didn't…do what I think you did_," Grace thought to herself.

* * *

Jenny waited for either Smytus or Krackus to make a move. She also wondered what was taking XJ3 so long to come back, but she didn't really have time to try to find out. She couldn't afford to take her focus off of either of them for a second.

Krackus began rotating his wheel at a very fast pace. He didn't move out of his spot yet though. Smytus remained perfectly still. He didn't even have one of his fists balled up, for he didn't want to reveal what his plan was. His eyes weren't even focused on any specific part of Jenny's body.

Jenny refocused her attention on Krackus to notice just how fast his wheel was actually spinning. Not only was it spinning fast enough to melt the asphalt, but it was spinning backwards. Before she had time to think of why it was spinning backwards, Krackus jumped only five inches off the ground. His wheel sped up to maximum, he landed back on the ground, and rotating shockwave started heading straight for Jenny tearing up the road as it traveled. It was also loud enough to put cracks in nearby windows.

Jenny jumped out of the way. Her victory was short lived when she noticed that Smytus had moved in behind her with his back facing hers, reached behind his back, and grabbed hold of her head. He pulled her over his back to his front and slammed her head into the ground. He then jumped out of the way when another one of Krackus's rotating shockwaves stormed through picking Jenny up off the ground and carried her with it until she slammed into a fire hydrant. At that point, the shockwave dispersed at the moment the hydrant burst open. Jenny leapt away from the hydrant before the water splashed on her.

When she got a safe distance away from Smytus and Krackus, she said "That's right, I'm water proof as long as my enhancer is still active. But man, those damn fire hydrants are tough. It almost gave even me a dent."

"So that wasn't enough to damage you, was it? Well, we'll just have to keep pounding you then. You'll eventually break," Krackus said.

"Bring it on then," Jenny said.

"Aren't you forgetting something," Smytus asked pointing at the spot that Krackus was just a second ago.

Jenny took her eyes off of Krackus only for a second, and he was nowhere in sight. She immediately jumped straight upwards into the air as fast as she could avoiding the rotating shockwave coming from behind her.

"That one was a freebie. We won't be giving you any more tips," Smytus yelled as he charged after Jenny.

Krackus also flew up into the air, but directly after Jenny. Jenny found out the hard way that Krackus didn't need to be on the ground to send those rotating shockwaves after her as she noticed him firing them at her repeatedly. Dodging them was difficult enough, but then she had to worry about Smytus as well. Smytus managed to dodge every one of the shockwaves while also focusing on trying to punch Jenny.

So far, Jenny also managed to dodge every attack, but she didn't know how much longer she could keep it up without making a mistake. Sometimes a shockwave would hit the ground or a building. The sound from the shattering windows, concrete, and asphalt was quite distracting as well.

It took about a minute, but she finally managed to find a very small opening in Krackus's attacks. Jenny fired a white energy ball from all five of the fingers on her right hand at the same time. Krackus was forced to dodge the balls giving her enough time to transform her left arm into a drill. She aimed it at Smytus who almost got impaled. He backed away from her and checked himself out. He realized that she managed to carve a line into his armor from the bottom of his chest plate up to just before his neck. He looked back at Jenny and realized just how surprisingly long the drill was.

"You could never make a fifteen foot drill before. Now I see, when you absorbed that thing, it increased your body's mass allowing you to bigger and better versions of your old transformations. I should've seen this coming," Smytus said as his wound began to repair itself.

As Jenny's arm returned to normal, she said "Well don't let the extra mass concept get you excited. I can still move around a lot faster than I was ever able to before I absorbed my enhancer. I might be heavier, but my speed more than makes up for it."

"I know. I'm also curious as to what else you might be hiding. Certainly you must be capable of much more," Smytus said.

Jenny's right arm transformed into a pole with a wheel in the end of it. It began rotating, and she turned around and sent a rotating shockwave of her own after Krackus. This one was about three times the size of Krackus's and twice as fast. If it weren't for the fact that Krackus knew his own attack so well, he probably wouldn't have been able to avoid it. Even so, he barely managed the dodge.

"That's one new thing. My mom remembered that time when Vexus saw my plans. Her mistake was the fact that she designed me with the ability to only be able to use one version of any specific transformation. With my upgrade, I can make up new versions if I want to, and learning how to use your attack was very difficult Krackus," Jenny explained.

"Yes, I see. You may have learning my attack, but it was sloppy. Practice is what you need, but time is what you don't have," Krackus said as his wheel began rotating again.

This time, Smytus's hands were surrounded in green energy. Jenny realized that they were planning on changing their attack strategy. Looking at her timer, she was surprised that an entire forty minutes had gone by already since her transformation. She couldn't allow this fight to drag on too much longer.


	35. Chapter 35

As the robot continued moving around through the woods, he kept trying scare and taunt them.

"I really hope you don't think you stand a chance against me. That's a very foolish thing to believe. However, if you really think you can win, then you are welcome to try all you like. Who knows, you might just get lucky," the robot said very confidently.

A moment later, the robot said "Ah, now I see why you picked this spot. I thought that mound of leaves seemed strange. That must be a building of some sort under there. You must be planning on hiding in there should you start finding it impossible to beat me. Don't you worry though, I'll be taking care of that building soon enough."

"I can't pin point his location. His voice sounds like it's coming from more than one place, and he moves too quickly," One of the snipers whispered.

"Keep him talking," Grace whispered.

"What? Why?" the sniper asked.

"When he's…talking, his movement…slows down," Grace explained.

"Yeah, your right. I didn't notice that before," the sniper whispered.

"What exactly are you whispering about? A clever plan maybe? Just remember, the more noise you make, the easier it is for me to find you," the robot said.

At that moment, the Sniper, Grace, and a young woman fired in the same direction. It's not a sniper's style to fire at target that they can't see, but this time, he couldn't afford to allow the enemy to have enough time to attack. The robot dodged the bullets fairly easily.

"You know, your aim is way off. I didn't even have to move and I would've still dodged them," the robot said followed by a laugh.

A few seconds later, the robot said "You should've realized one thing. I can tell what directions the bullets came from. Now it's my turn."

A moment later, a large stone weighing about one hundred fifty pounds came flying through the air in the direction of the other young woman that fired along with Grace and the sniper. She was sitting on a tree limb about ten feet off the ground. She shrieked and barely managed to move out of the way before the stone hit her. The stone kept going until gravity finally took over.

This first attack may not have proven fatal to anyone, but the result wasn't exactly pleasant. The stone didn't land on the ground first. It bounced off of a male high school students left leg before it landed on the ground. This impact shattered a large portion of the bones in his leg and tore his flesh open pretty badly. The pain was so great that he only cried out for about a second before fainting. Luckily, he let go of the trigger instead of squeezing it. The result of that would've been disastrous. One of the soldiers again told everyone to remain in their places and not to break up the formation.

"From that yell that I heard, that's one down. I bet you're wondering why I used a rock instead of one of my weapons. Well, I happen to think that it's a lot more fun this way. Besides, why should I waste my ammunition on you?" the robot asked.

* * *

Jenny used her sensors to scan the area instead of using her eyes. Taking her eyes off of them would've revealed what she was trying to do. The purpose was to map the city in her mind so she could devise a strategy. She realized that attacking them directly was too risky, so she needed an indirect approach.

She realized that her best option was to use the ship's weapons, but the problem was that she could not be in two places at once. Then there was also one other option. There was a factory on the other end of town that stored large amounts of propane and other highly flammable substances. If she could lure one or both of them in there, and hit the building with a powerful enough attack, she might be able to destroy them that way. It would be almost the same as what she tried to do to herself earlier.

She could always try to fight them directly. She might get lucky. She just wasn't willing to take too many unnecessary risks.

As she was about to make her move, she received a message from XJ3 in Morse code saying "I'm sorry I took so long. I had to find a way to keep the boy from running off and doing something stupid. I'm on my way back now. Do you have any good plans on how we can beat them?"

Jenny sent her a message saying "I have one. I could definitely use your help on this one. If you can, sneak onto their ship while they aren't looking and take control of its weapons. You will have to use them manually. I will send you a signal when I want you to fire."

XJ3 sent another message saying "That's simple enough…hopefully."

"What are you planning anyway? It must be really elaborate if it's taking you this long to think it up. Or did your CPU just crash?" Smytus asked as he threw a large ball of green energy at her.

Jenny waited until the ball was about a foot from her face. She grabbed it with both hands, turned around and threw it at Krackus. As Krackus avoided the attack, Smytus used this opportunity to attack Jenny while her back was still turned.

Already anticipating his attack, Jenny waited until he was about a foot behind her. She moved straight downwards carrying Smytus with her by his left ankle with her right hand. About a second before he hit the ground, she flew forward and landed about twenty feet away from him, while still holding onto his ankle with the help of her ability to extend the length of her arms.

As soon as Smytus crashed into the ground, she lifted him up a few feet off the ground and started swinging him around in a horizontal circle. She used her left hand to fire small white balls of energy at Krackus to keep him from interfering with her attack on Smytus. When her rotation reached a certain speed, she extended her arm even further until Smytus's body was being used as a wrecking ball smashing through the walls of nearby buildings. Being unprepared for such a wild attack, Smytus had a lot of difficulty trying to free himself. He wasn't the only one with problems. Krackus actually get hit by a few of the balls of energy while trying to dodge them.

About ten more seconds passed when Jenny finally let go of Smytus. As he traveled through the air, he went crashing through several buildings. As soon as Jenny retracted her arm to its normal length, she transformed that arm into a laser cannon twice the size of her usual ones, and then fired in the direction that Smytus went. Not wasting a second, she pointed the laser at Krackus and fired at him as well. She forced Krackus into a specific spot by sending a circular formation of small energy balls at him forcing him to dodge through the middle a second earlier.

When the lasers connected with their targets, they exploded violently producing a bright white light. Jenny immediately flew straight upwards to an altitude much higher than Krackus was so she could get an overhead view of everything that was going on at that moment.

When the explosions cleared, she could see large bright green balls of energy where the explosions were a few seconds ago.

Disappointed, Jenny yelled "Dammit! I should've known you had force fields as well."

When they deactivated their force fields, Smytus yelled angrily "I can clearly see that we didn't know what we were up against. Know we know. Krackus, we can't underestimate her any longer. We must crush her now."

"Agreed," Krackus answered.


	36. Chapter 36

Everyone was surprised when the robot stopped moving completely. About ten seconds had gone by and he still didn't move at all.

When everyone was about to open fire, the robot said "So I'm not mistaken after all. It is you. I didn't think you would be here of all places Jason."

"What?" A lot of the high school students asked in unison.

Jason began shaking with fear when the robot recognized him.

"I can barely see your face, but I know it's you. I know you're all wondering how I know him. I never met him personally, but I did see him on one of Krackus's computers. But if you really want to know the story, why don't you ask him?" the robot asked.

One of the soldiers pointed his rifle at Jason and asked "What the hell did you do?"

"Nothing!" Jason yelled as he jumped up as fast he could and started running.

A few seconds later, a laser zipped past Jason's head barely missing his face, and hit a nearby tree to his left. This made Jason stop completely.

"Where do you think you're going? They haven't heard about how you helped us yet," the robot said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jason yelled.

"Oh really, so what you're telling me is, that you had nothing to do with XJ9's decline? You're telling me that you didn't make that fantastic little speech in the school cafeteria? You're telling me that you didn't make her storm out of the cafeteria in anger? I seem to recall all of that happening. I also seem to recall Lord Smytus putting you up to it, or is my memory chip malfunctioning? Maybe you can clarify any details I might have overlooked; because that's the way I remember it happening," the robot said.

By this time, several people were pointing their weapons at Jason.

"It's just as…I thought. Why would…you help them?" Grace asked while she pointed her shotgun at him.

"I wasn't helping the cluster. I was helping Mr. Green. I didn't know he was Smytus in disguise," Jason explained.

"Nevertheless, you played a part in increasing their chances of losing. With XJ9 out of the picture, it would've been easy to wipe you all out. I wonder what hurts more right now. Is it the fact that they might kill you, or is it the fact that you won't be getting paid that one hundred thousand you were promised?" the robot asked.

"Holy shit! I can't believe you would take part in ending a life for money," a middle school student said.

"I was going to use a lot of that money to help my sick grandmother. She needs an operation, and it's really expensive. I didn't do that simply out of greed, and I didn't know ahead of time the world would be attacked," Jason explained.

"Why should we believe any of that?" a young woman asked.

"Yes, why should you? I'll leave that up to you to decide. Oh, and Jason, where is all that confidence you had before? I actually had some amount of respect when I saw you in those recordings. Now you look like a frightened animal, just like the rest of them," the robot said.

Jason stopped trembling and held his head down in shame for a moment.

He turned around facing the direction that the robot's voice was coming from, looked straight forward with a confident expression, and then said "You're right, I was just like a scared animal for a while. That's not the kind of person I usually am though. I'm not going to let any of this change the way I am. All of you can believe what you want, and you can shoot me to death if you want to as well. I say to you now that I was telling the truth. I'm sorry if I put you in danger, so kill me now if it'll make you feel any better."

* * *

Krackus started heading for Jenny directly. Smytus waited a moment before he started heading for her as well.

"_I can see now that I'm going to have use up most of my power to beat them should the first plan fail_," Jenny thought to herself.

She started firing hundreds of the small white energy balls at them. They both were able to swat them all away. Jenny stopped when she realized that attack wasn't working anymore. Both Smytus and Krackus fired powerful lasers from their hands. Jenny moved out of the way at the last moment and started flying away from them. They followed after her.

XJ3 watched the explosion from the connecting lasers and thought to herself "_That's just crazy. There's no way I would survive in a fight with them. Just three of those explosions would be enough to kill me_."

Jenny wasn't foolish enough to lead them directly to the factory, so she brought the chase to a much lower altitude. She knew the layout of the city, so she could fly around between the buildings until she reached the factory.

"What the hell are you planning XJ9?" Smytus asked as he fired another laser at her.

He didn't care that buildings were in the way because the laser would tear right through steel and concrete for about a quarter of a mile before exploding. Jenny caught on to that fact and was forced to speed up dramatically in order to dodge and maneuver through the buildings at the same time. The sound from the explosions was very loud. The fact she could sense every time that sound would bounce off of an object or wall was also very distracting. Her pursuers split up and started trying to find ways to intercept her from two different directions at once.

After several attempts to hit her failed, Krackus thought to himself "Hmm…maybe attacking directly isn't the best solution."

He began firing several lasers and rotating shockwaves in different directions. With all the distractions from the random explosions, Jenny started becoming really confused. She had difficulty figuring out which direction to go next. Before she had time to refocus her sensors, she heard a very loud metal clanging noise and found herself heading towards the ground at high speed. Just before she crashed into the ground, she realized that Krackus elbowed her on the top of her head.

Still a little disoriented, she struggled to crawl out of the small crater in the ground that was made with her body. She barely had any time to think before she had to put a huge amount of effort into dodging two more lasers that came from above. Even though she wasn't hit by the lasers directly, she was caught in the shockwave produced by the explosion. The force of the explosion pushed her into a small restaurant on the first floor of the fifteen story building.

"Only two more miles to go. I hope I can survive until then," Jenny said before the entire interior of the restaurant lit up a bright green.

Both Smytus and Krackus fired another laser directly at the building focusing on its base. As they watched the building collapse, they laughed as it seemed as though they might actually have been victorious.

"Is this really the end of the great global defender? Let's just wait and see," Smytus said.


	37. Chapter 37

As everyone's attention was focused on Jason, one of the soldiers realized just how stupid they were being. Without saying a word, he signaled three other soldiers with his left hand to refocus their attention on the robot during the distraction. A few seconds later, they opened fire on the robot. Machine gun and laser rounds pounded against the robot's armor. The robot screamed and started moving around again.

"Lucky bastards. I can't believe you actually hit me. No one does that to me. Now it's my turn," the robot yelled.

Everyone refocused their attention on the robot. The robot began randomly firing laser rounds not caring which one got hit, just as long as they died.

After seeing a few people become seriously injured, one of the soldiers yelled "Everyone, fire at will. One of us is bound to hit him at some point."

Everyone who was able did as he commanded and started firing wherever they thought the robot might be. The robot was apparently still able to dodge quite well considering the fact that shots were still being returned.

About twenty seconds later, Grace looked down at her shot gun and realized that it wasn't doing her much good since she had to reload after every shot. She stood up and ran over to a middle school boy who was doing a terrible job of trying to keep his machine gun steady. She pulled it out of his hand, and started firing in the direction she thought robot was in, completely ignoring the complaining boy.

"How is that bastard dodging all these bullets?" one girl yelled.

That's what most of them would've liked to know; not that they really had the time to try and find out.

The robot started to grow increasingly nervous as he realized that someone out of the group had unusually precise aim. Whoever it was, this person's aim was actually better than any of the soldiers' aim.

Once he realized who it was, he thought to himself "_This odd looking human girl has better aim than the soldiers do. But how is she able to come so close to hitting me so often when I'm hidden behind the trees_?"

The more he fought to make sense of it, the more distracted and careless he became. The moment he realized that he was becoming sloppy was a moment too late. He found himself being hit by several rounds.

Everyone focused on the sound of bullets ricocheting off of metal. The robot's movements grew much slower until he was barely moving at all. A lot of them felt pretty bad about continuously shooting something that was screaming so much, but they kept firing anyway. Soon, the robot finally fell from a tree limb and hit the ground.

"Everyone, hold your fire," a soldier yelled.

A few seconds later, everyone finally stopped firing. As a safety precaution, one of the soldiers opened a metal box and pulled out a grenade launcher. She loaded a grenade into it, aimed at the spot that the robot fell, and fired one round. The explosion was quite loud making a lot of the people there cover their ears.

The soldier loaded another grenade into the launcher and yelled "Get all of the wounded and dead out of here now."

As she aimed the launcher, several people began dragging the wounded and dead away. Fortunately, there were only three dead out of how many that there could've been. There were about twenty five injured however.

About a minute later, people started to calm down as they became convinced that the robot was dead. As soon as the soldier began to lower her launcher, the robot rose to its feet and started running directly towards the crowd in a screaming rage.

Most of the people began panicking as the frantically tried to aim their weapons again. The soldier with the launcher waited until the robot was completely visible and fired a grenade directly into its open mouth. A second later, the grenade exploded and took the robot's head with it. The robot ran a few more steps and finally collapsed.

"Yes, it's finally dead," an officer yelled.

Most of the others already began celebrating their victory. Everything seemed fine until a person that decided to inspect the robot heard a strange noise coming from it.

"Everybody, shut up!" the person yelled.

When everyone was finally quite, they heard a beeping noise coming from inside the robot's body.

"Run, it might be a bomb," a soldier yelled.

Everyone panicked and started running for their lives. A few seconds later, the robot's arms detached and grabbed someone's legs. This person was Jason.

"I can't move my leg. These hands are too heavy," Jason yelled.

"They're not coming back to save you. Did you really think that my CPU was in my head? Fools. In any case, I can't face Lord Smytus in this condition, but I'll be happy knowing that I took one of you with me. We have about ten more seconds to live human," the robot said as he started laughing.

A few seconds later, he stopped laughing when he realized that someone did come back to try and save Jason.

"What, why would you sacrifice yourself to save him?" the robot yelled.

"Grace?" Jason asked in disbelief.

"I don't…plan on sacrificing myself," Grace said as she knelt down beside Jason with two bullet proof shields to protect them from the explosion.

"At least, I hope this works," Grace said.

As soon as she finished her sentence, the robot exploded. It was a huge explosion that almost reached the shelter. Grace pushed against the explosion with the shields as hard as she could. At that moment, Jason realized that Grace must be really strong to be able to withstand that kind of force.

When the explosion cleared, Jason was about to comment on how strong she was, but was interrupted by a loud crackling noise.

"What the hell?" Jason asked.

Soon, the ground under them began crumbling. Grace struggled to drag Jason to safety, but it was too late by then. A large hole opened up in the ground beneath them and they fell under screaming at the top of their lungs. Some of the people came running back when they heard the screaming and realized that somebody fell into the hole.

"Who fell in, and why is there empty space down there?" an officer asked.

"I remember now, there is a subway system under there. Well, I don't know how they survived the blast, but they're gonna need another miracle if they hope to survive that fall," a high school student said.

* * *

"Well, I guess she must be dead. She's been under there long enough," Krackus said.

Before Smytus had a chance to comment, they both saw a shockwave extend from the base of the collapse in all directions horizontally.

"I guess it's too early to celebrate," Krackus said.

The collapsed building began rumbling violently and a bright white light shined through the cracks. A moment later, a laser shot straight upwards out of the top of what was left of the building. Smytus and Krackus moved out of the way of the beam.

A few seconds later, Smytus asked "Why hasn't she come out yet?"

About another ten seconds passed, and then Krackus said "What if she was inside the laser?"

Before either of them could react, Jenny quickly wrapped her extended arms around their bodies and started swinging them around in a circle, but much faster than when she was swinging Smytus around earlier.

"Bingo! You have just answered today's big question. I stayed down there long enough to repair my damages and come up with a plan. Hiding inside the laser is so unpredictable," Jenny explained.

Once she reached a certain speed, she aimed at the factory and let them go. She then sent a signal to XJ3 telling her to fire at in the direction of the factory at full power as soon as she gives the final signal. She transformed both of her arms into laser cannons and began charging a lot of energy into them.

As soon as they crashed through the walls of the factory, Jenny sent the final signal telling her to fire. XJ3 pressed the button on the console.

As soon as the ships lasers extended as far as Jenny was, she yelled "Now!"

She immediately fired her lasers so both hers and the ship's lasers would reach the factory at the same time. When the lasers connected with the factory, it created an explosion powerful enough to start pushing Jenny away from it. She had a somewhat difficult time trying to stay in the position she was in. She really wanted to see how this was going to turn out.

"I survived your attack, now let's see you survive this one," Jenny yelled.


	38. Chapter 38

"_I see…black. That's all I see…black. I see black, but I feel nothing. Am I alive? I certainly don't feel alive. I must be dead. If I am dead, then…where am I now? Is this what hell is really like? Or, am I in limbo? This definitely seems more like limbo to me; an endless…black abyss. Will I really be here forever? Will I? It doesn't…seem all that bad…actually. I think this arrangement will suit me just fine. I'll never have to worry about anything again. I can just…sleep_," Jason thought to himself.

He continued staring into the darkness for what seemed like an eternity. He remained motionless and almost completely devoid of thought. He remained in this state for a little while longer, until suddenly, he felt a force pushing against him.

"_What could this be? What is it that dares disturb my peaceful sleep? Who is it? I hear something…someone. Who is calling me? What could they possibly want from a dead guy?"_ Jason thought to himself.

What seemed like a few moments later passed, and then he thought to himself "_I think I know this voice. Leave me alone. What good am I awake…if I'm not even alive. Wait a second…_" Jason thought to himself as he noticed a very dim light and finally began to come to his senses.

He slowly sat up and looked to his left. As his vision became clearer, his first saw a hand on his shoulder. A couple of seconds later, he finally began to see who woke him.

"Grace?" Jason asked still a little dazed.

"Yes," Grace said as she removed her hand from his shoulder.

"Where…is that light coming from?" Jason asked.

"That…flash light," Grace answered as she pointed at the flash light.

Jason looked over at it. It was a very bright flash light, but it wasn't pointed directly at them. The light it gave off appeared dim because the amount of darkness in the area far outweighed the light.

"Now that you…are awake, I won't…need…to drag you anymore. We can begin looking…for a way out of here," Grace said.

A moment later, Jason said "Listen Grace. You should go on ahead without me."

"What? Why?" Grace asked.

"I've caused enough trouble as it is. It's my fault you're stuck down here with me. You should just…leave me behind," Jason said.

"I put…a great deal of effort…into dragging you to safety. I would hate…for all that…work…to be for nothing," Grace said as she began to feel irritated.

"You shouldn't have gone through all of that to save a person who no longer has a place among everybody else. You know they're going to hate me for what I did," Jason said.

Grace raised her voice some and said "That doesn't matter. You're acting…as if you committed…the most horrible crime imaginable. I believed you…when you said that…you did it for your grandmother. I also…believed you when you…said that you didn't know…that you were helping the Cluster."

"You are one out of billions of people who will most likely here about what I did. How can you be so confident that everybody else will share your view?" Jason asked.

Grace raised her voice a little more and said "I'm not. That doesn't mean…that you shouldn't try. If you stay down here, you'll…surely starve…to death. If you face them, you'll at least…have a chance."

Jason found it difficult to respond when he heard how angry Grace was becoming. Grace turned on a second flash light that she found and handed it to Jason.

She finally stood up and said "I still don't understand a lot of the reasons why normal people do the things that they do. I know now why they call you an annoying insect, but I would never say something like that about anyone, not even a fly."

Jason was completely shocked by what Grace said. He now found it even more difficult to speak. Immediately following her last word, Grace turned around and started walking away from Jason slowly. A moment later, she began mumbling to herself with a strange looking smile on her face.

"_That's the first time I've heard her speak so clearly. I guess I am a little foolish. She barely has a place in society because of her condition, but she tries anyway. That robot Jenny is the same way. If they're trying, then I should try too. If I should suffer the consequences of my actions, then so be it_," Jason thought to himself.

Jason looked up at Grace again to notice that she was barely visible.

A moment later, Jason thought to himself "_Wait a second Grace. Don't leave me behind._"

He finally got up and followed her. He realized it would probably be a while before they found a way out.


	39. Chapter 39

Jenny kept her distance from the area where the factory used to be and continued scanning the area for signs of life. She even told XJ3 to leave the space ship in case they suspect her and try to hold her hostage.

"I'm not entirely convinced that you've been destroyed yet, but you're definitely doing a good job of hiding if you haven't," She thought to herself while continuing to scan.

About a minute later, her sensors picked up a huge surge of energy. The surge disappeared completely before she had time to pin point its location or determine how strong it actually was. She knew that it had to have been from them.

"This must be the calm before the storm. If they are still alive, they must be really pissed off right now," Jenny said with a slight grin.

Without warning of any kind, she sensed something huge heading her way from behind. She turned around to see the top portion of a tall building about three stories in height heading towards her at high speed.

"Oh my god! You gotta be kidding me," Jenny yelled in surprise.

She moved out of its way and immediately scanned for who threw it.

"Foolish," a voice from behind Jenny said.

Jenny tried to turn around. She only managed to turn around about thirty five degrees before a large fist connected with the left side of her face. The force from the punch not only dented her face, but also sent her entire body flying in a downward diagonal direction. She was barely able to stop herself from crashing through a building. Stopping in mid air required an amazing amount of effort.

She turned around to see who hit her. The voice she heard was unfamiliar and the fist was also different from Smytus's or Krackus's. As her face repaired itself, she kept looking all around to find the culprit. Finally, she noticed a figure standing on top of a building about three miles away. She flew straight upwards while keeping her eye on the figure. She stopped when she had a better view of it. She zoomed in on the figure to see that it was indeed exactly what she feared it might be.

"A merger between Smytus and Krackus," Jenny yelled in surprise.

"Bingo, you have just answered today's big question," the new robot said with a grin followed by a laugh.

The merger formed a robot that was about twelve feet in height. He had a much more humanoid shape than Smytus or Krackus alone had. He had very few features that directly resembled any of the previous robots' features. His voice was almost as deep as XJ8's, but with personality.

"I'm not amused by your jokes. So, does this new body have a name?" Jenny asked.

"I'm still working on that. Names like Krymus, Smyckus, and Kratus sound a little too strange for my taste. I definitely don't plan on calling myself Smackus. That's just like putting one of those 'kick me' signs on my back. I'd have to come up with something new all together. In any case, all of that can happen later. Right now, we have a score to settle," the robot said.

"And you're referring to yourselves as one person, why?" Jenny asked.

"Fine. If you must know, while **'we'** are in this state, **'we' **are technically only one person. **'We'** can separate at any time. It just makes more sense to say I instead of we." The robot explained.

"A lot of good merging did for you. That just means that I only have on robot to destroy," Jenny said.

"You really shouldn't be so damned confident," the robot said.

The robot took one step forward before completely disappearing from Jenny's sight. She activated all of her sensors to full power while preparing for the next attack. An entire two minutes passed without the robot attacking at all. Jenny realized this was meant to frustrate her, to make her moves sloppy.

All of a sudden, a bright green beach ball sized energy ball started heading towards her from above so quickly that it began to stretch and distort. As soon as she noticed the light, she dodged the ball and began flying away from it as quickly as possible. As soon as she heard the explosion behind her, two more of those same balls headed towards her. This time, it was one from above, and one from below. The other difference was that the starting point of both was much closer to her than the first one. Dodging may have saved her from taking serious damage, but she was still caught in the shockwave of the explosion.

"_Looks like I have no choice_," Jenny thought to herself.

Jenny quickly blocked the other robot's right foot by grabbing it with her left hand. The force of the kick sent a visible ripple up her hand and arm. The robot was surprised that she was able to block the attack. Jenny's disks and eyes lit up while her arm repaired itself. A second later, her entire body started glowing, emitting a very thin layer of transparent white light.

* * *

The other XJ's and even Melody was able to sense her energy increase now. A moment later, Silver Shell's computer's started detecting her increase as well.

"Oh no, this can't possibly a good thing of she needs that much power," Sheldon said.

Ms. Wakeman was thinking the very same thing that Sheldon was thinking at that moment as well.

* * *

Jenny kept drawing power from the enhancer until visible electricity started emitting from her body as well. As soon as the robot tried to attack, Jenny screamed very loudly, pushed a lot of the energy into her right fist, pulled the robot closer to her, and punched him in the chest.

The robot noticed a small crack in his armor and immediately sent another one of those green energy balls at Jenny's face. She literally bent over backwards to dodge the ball, straightened, and hit him in the chest again. The robot successfully punched her in the face this time. She wasn't sent flying away this time like before, but she definitely took damage.

The robot then charged up his own green layer of energy around his body and began punching wildly. At least, it appeared wild. He actually knew what he was doing. Jenny had the same idea in mind, and they were both locked in a fierce melee battle.

Sparks were literally flying as metal clashed against metal. They used fists, feet, elbows, knees, etc. Both wandered how long they could keep this up. Their auto repair functions would only help them but so much.

"If I got involved in that struggle, they would tear me apart. I wish I knew how to help Jenny right now, but I don't," XJ3 said as she watched in the intense battle in fear and amazement.


	40. Chapter 40

Ms. Wakeman continued to monitor the time limit on the screen of her computer.

"You need to come up with a different strategy XJ9. Your time is counting down twice as fast as it should," Ms. Wakeman said.

A message appeared on the screen saying "I know that mom. It would really help if you wouldn't distract me right in the middle of a fight."

* * *

The robot noticed something odd about Jenny at that moment and decided to back away from her by about fifty feet.

"You often seem…distracted by something. What is bothering you?" the robot said.

"_And I was thinking they would take advantage of this opportunity_," Jenny thought to herself.

"I never gave it any thought until now. It should've been obvious. You must be communicating with mommy. I can tell it's not helping you. In fact, it's actually hindering you. The amount of time it takes to exchange two sentences is more than enough time for me to end your life," the robot said.

A moment later, the robot said "No answer. I must be right. No matter, it's not like it's helping you anyway. Why would I need to worry about it? By the way, aren't you curious to see what other modifications our combined state has? Check out this shit."

The robot created a ball of green energy in his right hand. Jenny was getting ready to say something along the lines of "you already did that before" when the robot created a rotating shockwave around the green energy ball.

Surprised, Jenny was about to move out of the way, but it was too late. She was being carried towards the nearest building rotating around the energy ball in the center.

"Let's see her escape from this one," the robot said.

Jenny crashed through one of the walls of the building into a conference room. The green energy ball finally exploded when it reached the center of the room. That entire floor of the building shattered apart from the blast and Jenny was pushed out through the opposite side of the building that she was forced into. Unable to stop herself in time, she crashed into the wall of the building next to the previous one.

In her disoriented state, she fell out of the dent in the wall and towards the street below her. The upper portion of the building that she was ejected from leaned over and crashed into the building that Jenny had just fallen off of. She hit the ground about the same time the building collided with its neighbor.

As soon as Jenny stood back up, most of the windows of the lower portion of the building that she was ejected from lit up a bright green.

"I'm not getting hit like that again," Jenny said as she flew to the left as fast as she could to avoid the next explosion.

The next thing she saw was the other robot waiting for her she he could push her back into the explosion. She then immediately thought of a very unusual transformation.

She stretched out her legs and anchored herself into the ground below her. She then transformed the rest of her body into a large sort of box shaped machine with a huge drill sticking out of it. Unlike Smytus, the robot successfully dodged this drill completely.

"That was close," the robot said as he saw Jenny transforming into something else.

The drill transformed into a laser cannon and fired at the robot. The robot responded by firing a laser of his own from a cannon that extended from his chest. Both were continuous lasers, which by a stroke of seemingly pure luck, didn't explode on contact.

"Our energies are apparently more compatible with each other than I originally thought. They're not reacting with each other violently enough to explode on contact. Well then XJ9, let's see who's energy is stronger," the robot provoked.

"Looks like I have no choice but to accept their challenge right now. I won't have enough time to move out of the way before I'm hit by his laser. If I didn't have to transform into something else to move, it would be easy. All right then, bring it on," Jenny thought to herself as she focused more power into her laser.

The residual energy being released from the struggle shattered windows all around. The more power they focused into their lasers, the more damaging an effect they had on their surroundings. About twenty seconds later, small cracks started forming in the ground and the buildings up to about a hundred and fifty feet around them, and a cloud of dust began spreading away from them in all directions for miles.

"_I hate to admit it, but they might be more powerful than me. I'm putting everything I have into this, and I don't think I'm getting anywhere. My time is running out fast. I'm really going to die here, aren't I?_" Jenny thought to herself nervously.

Jenny looked at her timer and realized that she was already down to only fifty six remaining minutes. She figured that if she used about forty minutes worth in a single effort, she might just be to defeat them with it.

"_Looks like I'm going to run out of power before my sisters do. Oh well, if it doesn't work, at least I'll know I tried. After that, there will be a small chance for me to escape, but I probably won't succeed. Okay then here goes nothing_," Jenny thought to herself.

She strained with all her might to push out forty minutes worth of her energy. The other robot pushed a lot of his energy into his laser in response to her increase. The few buildings surrounding them collapsed and their pieces were being pushed away. From a distance, a bright green and white light could be seen from many miles away from the city. A moment later, the green light became the dominate light followed by an explosion around the same size as the one from the factory.

When the blast and dust cloud finally disappeared, the robot slowly made his way over to Jenny on foot. She had barely managed to transform back into her normal form and lying on the ground struggling to find the strength to get up. Her condition at this point was far worse than Vexus with the exception that she was still conscious. Her body was starting to emit steam as her core temperature rose. Her time was almost out.

Standing over Jenny, the robot said "I must admit, you surprised me. I didn't think you could produce quite that much power. Even I'm starting to run low. It seems that, in the end, I was the strongest after all. Ms. Wakeman, if you can hear me right now, I bet you felt so proud of yourself for creating her. She is actually a worthy opponent. I will give you that much, but as you can probably see, it was all for nothing."

Jenny was almost standing when the robot grabbed Jenny by her neck and lifted her off the ground.

"Where do you think you're going? I could tell that you were getting ready to run away. You didn't use up all of your power in that last attack because you were planning on running, am I correct? You don't need to answer, I can see it written on your terrified little face. Did turn out quite how you planned, did it. You might have been successful at escaping if you hadn't taken so much damage. From the amount of steam coming from your body and the amount of oil leaking out, I bet that you've almost reached your limit. In that case, I guess it's time for me to end this little game. After I kill you, I'll hunt down the rest of your sisters while your mommy watches all of her little girls die one by one. Then I'll kill her and the rest of these pathetic creatures that inhabit this planet," The robot said.

A moment later, Jenny seemed to cough. For her, that wouldn't be normal sense she can't breath. A few seconds later, oil began to spill from her mouth.

"I can see that you're enjoying this…seeing me in this condition," Jenny said.

"Why are you smiling when you know you're about to die? Is it because I'm going to give you that peace that you were looking for last night?" The robot asked.

"That thought did cross my mind…but no, I do want to live. Despite all that I've been through…I do want to live. You say that you're going to hunt down my sisters after you're done with me. Well, what if they hunt you down first?" Jenny said before she started laughing.

The confused robot noticed a bright light out of the corner of his right eye. Before he turned his head to see where it was coming from, his right arm, the one used to hold Jenny in the air, was torn in half at the joint by a powerful laser. As soon as the laser passed by them, Jenny pushed herself away from the large robot by jumping off of his chest.

"What? Damn you, I'll destroy you all," the robot said as he looked up to see Melody, XJ4, and XJ2 floating in the air.

"That's it for me," Melody said as XJ2 separated from her arms.

Melody had used all of her power to boost XJ2's power beyond her maximum. XJ2 had some power left, but Melody couldn't afford to give any more or she would die. She fainted and fell into XJ4's arms.

"That's okay Melody. You've done enough for now," XJ4 said.


	41. Chapter 41

XJ4 lay Melody on top of XJ2 and said "You don't have as much power as I do, so you run and find a safe place to hide. Take Melody with you."

As XJ2 was leaving, the robot said angrily "You're not going anywhere."

The robot began charging after them at high speed until XJ6 seemed to appear from out of nowhere in front of the robot. He stopped in reaction to her sudden appearance, but she didn't. She charged him head on as fast as she was able to move.

The robot charged some energy in his remaining hand, but the flow of energy was interrupted when XJ6 put a hole in his wrist with the tip of her arm that had been transformed into a long lance.

"It's a good thing you don't know what our new abilities are. That gives us the advantage," XJ6 explained with a grin.

Without a response, the robot's arm tightened around the lance preventing XJ6 from pulling it out. He raised his arm upwards some breaking a portion of the lance off from XJ6's arm. He quickly pulled it out with his teeth and spat it out directly at her. Not expecting such an outrageous move, XJ6 hesitated too long before trying to move out of the way. She dodged to the left but her arms impaled with the tip of her own lance. She paid too much attention to her damaged arm to avoid the kick to the left side of her head that sent her flying into the back of a nearby transfer truck.

"Die," the robot commanded as he prepared another energy ball.

When he fired it, the ball was knocked out of its path by one of XJ7's shockwaves. Both the ball and the shockwave exploded in mid-air after traveling for about ten feet.

"So you've come too? You're the one that used to be so much more depressed than XJ9. I'm sure you must feel great knowing that you're not the most pitiful anymore," the robot commented.

"I don't plan on listening to any of your bullshit," XJ7 said angrily.

She began punching rapidly sending hundreds of shockwaves in his direction.

"_Does she really think she can hit me from this distance_," the robot thought to himself.

When he tried to move out of the way, the robot received a powerful punch from a very large fist sending him back into the path of the shockwaves. At the moment the shockwaves started bombarding him, he realized the large fist belonged to XJ8.

"Do not hold back XJ7," XJ8 said.

XJ7 gave it everything she had, not yielding for even the shortest length of time possible. After about thirty seconds of constant pounding, the robot finally managed to activate his force field. He advanced directly toward XJ7 plowing right through her shockwaves. XJ8 made an attempt to knock him off course with a kick, but was sent flying in a downward diagonal direction toward the ground on the tip of a laser beam.

XJ7 charged a lot of her energy into one big shockwave. She hit him with it not confident that it would hurt him, but confident that it would slow him down just enough to be able to move out of the way of his next attack. Her plan worked, but just barely. She managed to get enough distance from him to avoid being hit by whatever he was planning, but he was already preparing to fire another laser, but at her instead of XJ8 this time.

He fired the laser at her, and at his distance from her, he was confident that he wouldn't miss. XJ4 intervened at the last moment. She spun around as fast as a jet engine turbine, and was pointed in the opposite direction from XJ7. The wind blew her out of the laser's path instead of sucking her towards XJ4.

"So, the little cleaning lady has an interesting ability after all," the robot commented.

"Your insults aren't going to help you win this battle," XJ4 said.

"And how do you suppose you'll win this battle. All you can do is blow wind," the robot teased.

"We'll find a way. Even if we all die trying, we're taking you with us," XJ4 replied.

"All of you? That must mean…" The robot said as he started looking around.

As he was looking in one direction, missiles were heading for him from another direction. He realized this and turned around the see the missiles. He fired an energy ball powerful enough to plow right through the missiles and continue until it hit whatever was behind the missiles. During this distraction, a repaired XJ6 came charging after him at full speed with all five of her fingers sharpened into long blades. She managed to slash him just a little before being sent flying away from another powerful kick.

He looked around again and realized that the last energy ball he sent off hit a building, but there was no sign of who fired the missiles.

"Who fired them? Answer me," the robot commanded.

XJ1 fired the missiles, but he wasn't aware of it. She wasn't foolish enough to get directly involved. She decided that her best option was to hid around behind a building, fire missiles as a distraction, move to another location behind a different building, and reduce her motors to their slowest speed without deactivating her engines altogether in order to prevent detection. She would then repeat the process all over again. It's not that it was impossible for her to be detected, but her sisters weren't planning on sitting around long enough to let that happen.

"_I gotta admit, that's a pretty good plan for a baby_," Jenny thought to herself.


	42. Chapter 42

The robot kept frantically looking around to find the person responsible for firing the missiles at him. A few moments later, he finally calmed down.

"An excellent plan. I have to admit it. Whoever is firing those missiles is only doing it to distract me. If you want to fight dirty, I can do that too. You distract me so your sisters can attack me. I kind of wanted to go easy on the rest of you, but now I can't. I see that now I'm going to have make sure that you no longer have any sisters left for this distract and attack plan to work," the robot said.

He immediately started flying towards Jenny with large amounts of energy around his hand. In her weakened condition, there was virtually no way she could defend herself. The other nearby XJs followed him to try and protect Jenny. Since Jenny was barely even able to walk, escaping would be very difficult for her. XJ3 finally arrived to help out as well. She wasn't about to let her sister be destroyed, even if she wasn't nearly as strong as most of her sisters.

The robot waited until they all got very close to him, and then stopped abruptly. He concentrated a lot of energy into a force field around his body and forced it to expand in size rapidly. This caused XJ's 3 through 8, with the exception of XJ5 who hadn't arrived yet, to be sent flying away from him uncontrollably. The robot immediately resumed his pursuit of Jenny who was actually trying to run away.

"And I've decided to start with you," the robot yelled.

Jenny was almost within his grasp, when at the last moment, a large hand grabbed the right side of her waist and pushed her to the left. The surprised robot stopped himself by sliding his feet on the ground. He looked up at Jenny who was being carried through the air by an unfamiliar robot hand. He thought that it was indeed a single hand, but he had to check again to make sure.

He took off into the air chasing after her again. He didn't even manage to get close this time because the owner of that hand, Silver Shell, wrapped it's arms and legs around the robot very tightly forcing the robot to stop so he could deal with this current problem.

"It's you. I didn't think you would be brave enough to challenge me Sheldon. As soon as I get your garbage can off of me, I'll destroy you along with it," the robot yelled.

As he continued to struggle to break free, Sheldon said "I'm not brave enough to challenge you. That's why I'm not inside of Silver Shell."

"What?" the robot asked.

"As much as I love piloting Silver Shell directly, I do realize that there comes a time when piloting him remotely becomes necessary. If you're wondering how he has enough strength to hold you in place, XJ5 deactivated her enhancer and gave it to me so I could use it to power up Silver Shell just enough for these few moments," Sheldon explained.

All of the available XJs, who could still fight, including XJ1, began an all out assault on the robot. They only had a short time to cause as much damage as possible before Silver Shell exhausted all of its extra power. All of them continuously pounded him with their fists, with the exception of XJ6 who was putting several holes in his body.

"What's the matter? You don't have enough power to use that force field of yours anymore? I thought so," Sheldon said.

"Dammit! I've put several holes in this guy and he still hasn't died yet," XJ6 yelled.

About twenty seconds later, Sheldon yelled "Now!"

All of the XJs currently fighting the robot backed away and watched Silver Shell self destruct. Once they reached a good enough distance from the blast, all of the available XJ's that could fire projectiles began firing at the robot as rapidly as they could. For an entire minute and a half, they all exhausted most of their power supply. When they all finally decided that they could not afford to use any more power, they stopped firing.

When the smoke finally cleared, they could see that the robot was not quite dead yet.

"Come on. What does it take to defeat this guy?" XJ4 complained.

He may not have been destroyed yet, but the damage he received was catastrophic. Most of his left leg had completely disintegrated, most of his body was leaking oil, and sparks were shooting out of the exposed wires.

"Both of my arms are completely useless, and I only have one leg," the robot said as his voice slowly changed into Smytus's.

"Your voice. What happened?" XJ7 asked.

"I see now, you were the one firing the missiles XJ1. My voice…you want to know? Fine, I'll tell you. Krackus is…no longer…with us. He's dead," Smytus explained.

"So that means that we won?" XJ8 asked.

"I guess so. I have to hand it to you all. Well done," Smytus said as he fell to the ground no longer having enough energy to fly.

"Sisters, let's just go make sure," XJ6 said.

One by one, they all flew towards Smytus. When they finally landed, they surrounded his body and stared down at him with some of the angriest expressions they've had in their lives.

"I barely have…enough power left…to stay alive, so I'll make…this brief. As much as I would still like to kill you all…I know that I'm no longer able to even try. You have all proven yourselves to be superior to me and Krackus. You have earned the right to have it your way…at least until someone else comes along. The strong are the ones that make the rules after all. I know you don't think I deserve anything, but I do have one final request. I want XJ9 to deliver the final blow. I feel that she should be the one to do it, since she is my closest enemy," Smytus said.

Jenny flew down from the rooftop that she was on and landed between XJ4 and 7.

"I should let one of them do the honors just you won't feel satisfied, but since you're right that I am your closest enemy, I will honor your request. I want you to know one last thing. When my time finally comes, and if there is such a thing as an afterlife for robots, you better hope that I never find you. If I do, I will do everything in my power to make your existence a living hell. Pass that message onto Krackus if you find him," Jenny said angrily.

Smytus laughed and said "I expect no less."

"Sisters, you might want to take a few steps back," Jenny said.

They did as she said. She took a few steps back as well, and transformed her arm into a weapon that she hadn't used in several months. It was a large round ball with spikes sticking out all over it connected to a chain.

"Ah, the thunder fist. It's been a while since I've seen that one. Farewell XJ9. I wasn't lying when I said…that you are a worthy opponent," Smytus said.

Smytus closed his eyes. Jenny paused for a moment contemplating everything that's happened in the course of only one day. She then extended the chain from her wrist to just the right length. She then let the ball drop and pulled it backwards so she could swing it behind her back and over her head. The second before it made contact seemed to pass very slowly. The heavy ball finally smashed Smytus into thousands of small pieces ending his life. Complete silence followed for about thirty seconds as they all felt they needed a moment to absorb the fact they had finally won.

Jenny finally broke the silence by saying "You know. Maybe I should've used a different weapon. This one seemed a little too barbaric. I can't go back and change that now. Well, we won girls. I guess I won't need this anymore for the time being."

Jenny finally deactivated her enhancer. A bright light surrounded her as her outfit returned to normal. When the light disappeared, her appearance returned to normal with the exception of her blue paint. Without it, she looked a little strange. It wasn't as if she couldn't just get another paint job though.

The other XJs, besides XJ1 finally deactivated their enhancers as well. Needless to say, but they all looked rather odd without their paint.

Ms. Wakeman's voice sounded in all of their heads saying "Great job girls. I'm proud of you all. I hope you'll try to cheer up. I wish it could've turned out better than this, but it was the best we could do. One other thing, it turns out that all of those other robots that were under Smytus's command are leaving the planet as we speak. They apparently felt that there's no longer any point in staying here since they no longer have a master."

"That's good news. What about the all of those Earth machines?" Jenny asked.

"Those unfortunately still need to be taken care of," Ms. Wakeman said.

"At least they aren't nearly as difficult to destroy as Smytus and Krackus. This job will just be long and tedious," XJ6 said.

"Vexus is getting away," XJ8 said pointing in Vexus's direction.

Vexus was walking away from them very slowly. She was pretty far away from them at this point, so it was kind of difficult to see her very clearly from their distance.

"Leave her alone," Jenny said.

"What? Why?" XJ4 asked.

"I'm not totally convinced of it yet, but I'm starting to believe that she actually intentionally helped us when she removed that control chip from her head. I know that I shouldn't trust her, but I think that she deserves at least a temporary pardon for what she did. Besides, she's not much of a threat anymore anyway. Who knows, if I am right, there might be a chance that she will turn over a new leaf…maybe," Jenny explained.

"Are you really sure about this? I hope you're right," XJ7 said.

"I'm pretty sure. In any case, we have billions of berserk machines to take care of right now anyway. We can't worry about her right now. She's too badly damaged to be a threat for the time being. We still have work to do," Jenny said.

Jenny and the other XJs took off into the air and separated. With Smytus and Krackus gone, the remaining threat wasn't nearly as serious. Neither of them really felt like continuing after everything they'd just been through, but they knew they really had no other choice.


	43. Chapter 43

Grace and Jason had been walking around for a while now. The more they walked, the more Jason felt as if they were only getting even more lost than the moment before.

"Listen Grace, do you have any idea of how to get out of here?" Jason asked.

"Sort of?" Grace answered.

"Really? To be honest, I didn't expect you to answer with anything close to a yes. How can you even have the smallest idea of how to get out of here? This subway system is about a hundred years old," Jason said.

"I…do a lot of reading. I pay…I mean…I remember lot's of details. It would…take too much time…for me to explain it all…to you," Grace explained.

"_She must do a hell of a lot of reading,_" Jason thought to himself.

A moment later, Jason asked "Well, if you do really know, about how much longer do you think we have until we find an exit?"

After thinking about it for a moment, Grace replied "If I'm right, we'll be down here…for another two and a half hours."

"That long? Are you really sure about that?" Jason asked.

"From…what I've read, if we traveled in…the other direction…we would be walking for about four hours…before we found an exit. Complaining won't help…and running is dangerous. You might trip over something," Grace explained.

"What if you're wrong?" Jason asked.

"Then the exit…is either closer or farther," Grace replied.

"Fine. I guess I have no choice but to endure this either way I look at it," Jason said.

"That's the spirit. I think…that's how you're supposed…to say that," Grace said.

"Yes, that's correct. You said you don't understand much about the way we 'normal people' do things. Why is that?" Jason asked.

"If you're trying…to ask me about my past…I really wish…you wouldn't. I ask, that you respect my wishes," Grace replied.

"Wow, okay. That's fine. I don't really like to talk about my past much either, so I can understand where you're coming from to that extent.

"My point is…that there are things about…my past that no one should know. I don't…even know why I'm telling you this much," Grace explained.

"Okay then. I will respect your wishes and just leave that subject alone," Jason said.

"Thank you," Grace said.

"I just hope these batteries last until then," Jason said.

"If they don't, we'll be…wandering around in complete darkness…and probably get bitten by a snake…or something. You are the one…who said that we should learn to accept…reality. That's reality. I hope…you haven't…become a hypocrite," Grace said.

"You're right. Maybe I am becoming one. You really make me hate myself with that comment. I do need to be more consistent with my beliefs. I should thank you for that," Jason said.

"You don't really need to. I'm…not much…of a thank you or…you're welcome type of person. I'm not…used to that," Grace said.

"I gotta admit, you're personality is much different than I first thought," Jason said.

"You would be…surprised…as to how many times I've heard…similar comments," Grace said.

"You think that might be an exit?" Jason asked as he pointed his flashlight upwards.

Grace looked at it for a moment, and then said "It's supposed…to be, but it's not. It would be impossible to open that lid. It's welded…shut. I didn't know…about that one. It must be much newer, or probably…unimportant," Grace explained then continued walking.

"Oh well. I guess we'd better keep going then," Jason said.

* * *

"I swear, I think I might be getting too old for this," Ms. Wakeman said as she rubbed her temples.

"I may not actually be old, but all this worrying is starting to make me feel that way, so I kinda know what you mean," Brad said.

"I appreciate your trying to make me feel like I'm not the only one, but trust me, you have no idea what it really feels like to be old like me," Ms. Wakeman said with a grin.

"I might not be feeling old, but I am feeling very sleepy. We didn't get any sleep last night," Tuck said followed by a deep yawn.

"Now that you mention it, I am feeling very sleepy," Brad said.

"Why don't you two go sleep on the sofas in the living room. Jenny wouldn't like it very much if I let you sleep in her bed, and neither would I like it if you slept in mine. There are some blankets and pillows in that closet over there," Ms. Wakeman said.

"Aren't you going to get any sleep Ms. Wakeman?" Brad asked.

"No, I'll be just fine. I've gone much longer periods of time without sleep before," Ms. Wakeman replied.

"Okay then, we'll see you when we wake up," Brad said as he and his brother left the room with blankets and pillows in their hands.

"_I don't want to tell them yet, but their world is going to be quite different from now on. They're probably too sleepy to realize it right now, but they'll find out soon enough. I can see that this is only the beginning of the troubles this world is going to face in the near future. Trying to recover from this tragedy is going to be very tough for almost everyone_," Ms. Wakeman thought to herself.

* * *

As the XJs flew over the cities that they passed, they all realized just how bad a condition the entire world was actually in.

"I can't believe it took this long for it to hit me you guys. A great percent of Earth is a complete wreck right now. I don't see any possible way of recovering from this any time soon," Jenny said.

"To be honest, it'll probably take many decades before we finally restore everything," XJ7 said.

"This is one mess I really don't want to have to clean up," XJ4 said.

"Getting rid of the berserk machines alone will probably take weeks," XJ8 said.

"And there's no way we can keep going for weeks at a time without a recharge," Jenny said.

"Damn you Smytus and Krackus! Why did you have to do this to us? Why couldn't you just leave us alone?" XJ6 yelled as she realized just how long it was going to take.

"We all feel the same way you do right now XJ6, but we need to have the strength to see this through to the very end," XJ3 said in Morse code.

"I know you're right, but this whole situation makes me want to just start screaming as loud as I can, but I know it won't fix anything," XJ6 said.

As soon as they found places that were in chaos, they flew in and began helping out the people in trouble. They didn't know how long it was going to take, but they were determined to fix all of the damage that was caused that day…or at least most of it.


	44. Chapter 44

As Grace and Jason continued trying to find a way out, Jason began to seriously contemplate everything that's happened over the past few weeks. He wasn't usually the type of person to spend very much time dwelling in the past, but since he didn't have much else to do while still stuck in the dark tunnel, he decided to make an exception.

He first thought about the day that he first saw Grace. There weren't many girls that he ever really liked. He found many to be quite attractive, but he never really liked them. It was mostly their attitudes that disgusted him. Since the amount of resentment he felt towards them almost completely outweighed how physically attractive he thought they were, he lost interest in almost all of them very quickly.

Grace was different. She didn't seem nearly as attractive as someone like Brit for example, but she was one of the only girls that he never felt any resentment towards whatsoever.

"_Maybe one of these days I could ask her out…maybe. I'm…not really sure if I like her enough yet though. If we live that long, maybe it might work out…maybe_," Jason thought to himself.

He then began to think a little more about the future. Everything that happened over the course of only one day would change things. That's when it finally hit him. Jason stopped walking, but didn't say anything. Grace turned around and shined her flash light on him. She could see that he was standing completely still with his left hand on his chest and an expression on his face as if he had just seen a ghost.

"What's wrong?" Grace asked.

"I…just realized it. When we return to the surface, our lives are going to be so much different from before. Our societies…they aren't designed to recover very quickly from such massive attacks," Jason replied.

"With most of…our technology being computer…controlled, most of it will have to be destroyed. That means…that we'll basically be living a much older fashioned…lifestyle…than we're used to. At least, that's the way…it'll be for a while," Grace explained.

"Why are you…? You don't seem to mind at all," Jason said.

"You're right. I don't. Most people…are too dependent…on machines and…robots. Why do you think…that we were beaten so miserably? The human race itself…is becoming…weaker with each passing generation. The proof…is the fact that we were barely able…to defend ourselves against our own…machines. We spent too…much time improving our machines…instead of improving ourselves, and now…we're paying for it," Grace explained with a somewhat angry expression on her face.

She turned around, started walking again, and then said "It's just something…we will have…to deal with. We need to…keep walking…before our batteries die."

"Right, let's keep going," Jason said as he began following her again.

Two more hours passed, but to them, the hours seemed more like days. Grace's flash light was starting to dim.

"Hey Grace. Since you're in front, you think you should be the one with the brighter flash light?" Jason asked.

"No need. We're almost…at the exit now. I…seriously hope that I'm right. I'm getting tired…of walking," Grace replied.

"Me too," Jason said followed by a yawn.

A few minutes later, Grace stopped walking, pointed her flash light to the left and said "I think…that might be the exit."

"I think you're right, and it doesn't look welded shut either," Jason said with a pretty relieved tone.

Grace walked over to the ladder and said "On second thought…you climb first."

"Right, you don't want me looking up your dress. I completely understand," Jason said as he walked over to the ladder.

Grace moved out of the way and let him climb first. About half way up the ladder, she heard a metal squeaking sound from above.

"Hey, you should probably try to avoid this bar. It's loose," Jason explained.

He continued climbing, avoiding putting too much weight on the bar that he mentioned. They both successfully avoided breaking the bar and finally made it to the top.

"I hope this isn't too difficult to open," Jason said as he began pushing upwards on the lid.

After about a minute of straining to try to open it, he said "I can feel it moving a little bit, but I don't think I'm strong enough to open it all the way."

Grace climbed up beside him and said "Try not…to think about how awkward it feels…for our bodies to be touching. Just push…at the same time I do."

"Okay," Jason said as he fought off his blush.

Grace and Jason began pushing on the lid at the same time. The entire time, Jason couldn't help but stare at Grace's trembling arms as she pushed with all her might.

"I really hate doing this…but I have no choice," Grace said.

She clenched her teeth together and began pushing even harder than before. Jason saw how her face began turning red, and then looked back up at her arms. Her arms almost seemed to expand in size by about a millimeter or two as they stopped trembling so violently. He was convinced that her arms' expansion was just a figment of his imagination. She let out a strained yell and began pushing even harder.

Jason felt as though she shouldn't be the only one to push herself that hard, so he began to push harder as well. About ten seconds later, the lid finally began to open. About a hundred years worth of hardened dirt began to break apart to allow the lid to open more easily. About thirty more seconds, the lid popped open and swung up and over on its hinges and landed on the ground above with a loud bang.

As the almost blinding sunlight shown through, a man's voice from a distance yelled "Who's down there?"

Grace put so much effort into pushing against the lid that a lot of blood rushed to her head. This caused her to almost faint and began falling backwards. Jason reacted as quickly as possible by reaching out with one arm and wrapping it around her waist holding her in place.

"Who are you? I won't hesitate to shoot if you're a robot," the man yelled.

"You don't need to do that. We're not robots. We're human beings. We got trapped down here while we were under attack. I really need your help getting us out of here. I'm holding onto a girl that looks like she's about to pass out at any moment. Please help us," Jason yelled.

"All right. I'm coming over to help," the man said as he ran over to them.

The man looked down at them, lay down on his front, and reached in. Jason gave the man both of Grace's arms. The man pulled her out first and Jason followed afterwards.

After Jason closed the lid, the man said "Both of you must've been pushing against that lid with everything you had. It would've been close to impossible for me to do that alone. It looks like she pushed a little too hard though, but she'll be all right. A bunch of blood must've just rushed to her head, that's all."

"That's a relief," Jason said.


	45. Chapter 45

A little more than four months passed before a noticeable number of people began to return to their normal lifestyles. At least, it was as normal as possible considering how much had been lost. It's one thing for a single family's house to burn down, for them to lose everything, and have to start over. It was a much more difficult challenge for most of the world to recover. Infrastructure wise, the cities of the world were still a long way off from recovering from the damage.

This event was documented as the only time in recorded history that the entire world had become a battlefield.

* * *

Jenny was standing alone in the auditorium of the high school she attended. She was bent forward slightly leaning her crossed arms against the top of the wall that was meant to keep people from falling off of the balcony.

She was not happy at all. In fact, she was still quite torn up inside. After thinking about her life for a while, she heard the footsteps of a single person closing in on her from behind.

"Hey Sheldon," Jenny greeted him with a not so cheery tone.

Sheldon walked up to the wall about two feet from Jenny and rested his arms on the balcony as well.

"How did you know it was me? You didn't even look at me," Sheldon said.

"Did you really have to ask that question? You already know the answer. All I did was memorize the pattern of your footsteps," Jenny explained.

"Yeah, I know. I just felt like asking anyway. Have you been feeling any better lately?"

"Not really. The truth is, I basically feel the same all the time, I just don't feel like crying anymore," Jenny replied.

"Oh man…I didn't expect you to be quite that honest. Now you're making me feel sad," Sheldon said.

Jenny didn't respond to that last statement at all. They both stopped talking for a little while and just thought about everything that's happened since that fateful day.

Jenny was thinking back to when she had to stand in front of all of the world leaders and explain why she wasn't able to do more than she did. She was so angry at them for still trying to place the blame on someone even after everything that had happened. She wondered what they could possibly hope to gain by trying to make it seem as though the whole situation was all her fault.

Sheldon was thinking back to the time when Jenny found out what Jason did. He remembered Jenny holding Jason up in the air by his shirt and screaming at him. He remembered how irrational it was for her to be that angry even after Jason explained why he did what he did. He remembered how everyone reacted when Jenny punched Jason in his face knocking him to the ground. For a second, the crowd thought that she had killed him. They were relieved when they found out that he was still alive and conscious. At least some of them were anyway. A lot of them thought that he deserved that punch and more.

The part that he remembered the most was what happened next. Jenny walked over to Jason preparing to hit him again. She was within two feet of Jason when a girl came running out of the crowd, jumped, and punched Jenny in the left side of her head as hard as she could. The punch was actually powerful enough to knock Jenny to the ground. The effort needed to knock Jenny to the ground also made the attacker fall to the ground.

Jenny looked over, recognized the person who punched her, and then said "Grace? What the fuck do you think you're doing? I hope you're not trying to defend that bastard."

Grace didn't respond to Jenny. Instead, she crawled close to Jason, but between Jason and Jenny. On her knees, she held her arms out.

With an angry expression, Grace yelled "If you really want…to hurt or even kill him…you'll have…to go through me first.

The entire crowd went silent after her statement. Jenny couldn't even think of a way around it.

"He said that…he was sorry for what he…did. If you can't…show any mercy…to someone who has sincerely…apologized…then you really are becoming the monster…that so many people have feared you might become. Those people…who always thought that you were a monster…would then have the right to…say so and other people would agree with…them. Think about what you're doing. The moment you…kill a human for such a stupid…reason, that would ruin your…chances of ever being…accepted by the human race," Grace yelled.

Jenny stood up and walked away without saying a word. She knew Grace was right, but she was too angry to show any direct acknowledgement.

Sheldon snapped out of his day dream and asked "I've been meaning to ask you, why did you give me that beetle anyway?"

"Oh, you mean the one I gave you after we left to go end the riots? I knew you would think it was kind of weird for me to ask you to head home and put that beetle in your house in that situation. It turns out that it was actually a pet of Vexus's," Jenny explained.

"What the…?" Sheldon asked confused.

"Yeah, I thought it was kind of weird too. She said she found it one day inside the barn that she was in and made it her pet because she was lonely. I actually felt kind of sorry for her when she told me that. She was overjoyed when I brought it back to her," Jenny explained.

"Wow. That is actually kind of sad. So…did she give it a name? I always ask that about people's pets," Sheldon said.

"She named him Hugo, an Earth name of all names," Jenny replied.

"So you really do think that she might turn over a new leaf, don't you?" Sheldon asked.

"Yeah, why not? She pretty much has no reason to attack us anymore. Well, maybe a reason, but no real way of winning. Plus, she hasn't attacked anyone in over two years now...that we know of. She didn't seem as disgusted to see me when I went to visit her as I thought she would. I mean, she was disgusted, but not nearly as much as I expected," Jenny explained.

"I guess I never gave it that much thought. She is much different than before. Maybe you're right, but I wouldn't completely let my guard down if I were you," Sheldon said.

"I won't. On a different subject, to be honest, I thought that was pretty noble of you to sacrifice Silver Shell for us like that," Jenny said.

"Really? Well, I guess his purpose was outlived anyway. He didn't exactly end up giving me the result I wanted either. I plan on building another one soon, but it won't be for the same purpose as before," Sheldon explained.

"What exactly was his purpose? I bet it was some way to get to me, wasn't it?" Jenny asked.

"Yeah, I confess. I was hoping to make you think that he was a real jerk so you would consider other options, me for example. That didn't work out so well," Sheldon explained.

"Figures. That's such a simple plan, and I didn't even see it," Jenny said.

"I'm surprised that you don't seem as repulsed as you usually would after hearing such an explanation. Normally, you would say something mean, then walk away," Sheldon said.

"I know. That's what I would usually do. Truth is, I could never understand the reasoning behind your actions before. When you told me everything that night that I was about to kill myself, I finally began to understand you. I guess I'm not repulsed by you anymore. I am actually grateful that you saved me from myself that night. Don't take this too seriously yet, but I will give you this much as a reward," Jenny said and then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

She returned to her position from before and waited for Sheldon's response.

"That would be the second kiss I actually earned then, wouldn't it?" Sheldon asked.

"Second? Oh, right. The first one was when that crazy kid tried to destroy the holidays for everybody else. That was also when you had total faith in me when no one else did. Yes, you did earn that one too," Jenny said.

"I was hoping that you didn't forget that. I'm glad you didn't," Sheldon said.

Sheldon looked over at Jenny's hands and noticed that her fingers were twitching.

"What's wrong with your hands?" Sheldon asked.

"They aren't malfunctioning. It's just a reaction to every heartbreaking thought that's running through my mind right now. When I was created, I never realized just how sad and horrible this world of yours actually was. It's too much for me some times," Jenny said as her voice began trembling.

"You're not alone when it comes to realizing that. It's too much for us sometimes as well. I know that quite well. I did almost kill myself to escape this reality after all," Sheldon said.

What Sheldon did next was pretty bold. He knew the risk, but he did it anyway. He reached out, pulled Jenny towards himself, and hugged her tightly.

"No matter what happens though, I never want to see you try to kill yourself again as long as I live. If you had pulled it off that night, I probably would've killed myself the following day. I would've felt like there was nothing left for me if you were gone. It doesn't matter what we have to face in the future, we have to find the strength to endure it all. Speaking of heartbreaking, every time I see you so miserable like this, it's very heartbreaking for me," Sheldon said.

Jenny wrapped her arms around his back, grabbed his jacket very tightly, and then said "I don't want to feel miserable, but I can't help it. Why, why does life have to be this cruel?"

"I really wish I could answer that question myself, but I can't. I can however promise you that no matter how bad it gets, I will always be here to comfort you if you need it," Sheldon said.

As Jenny's face was pressed against his chest, Sheldon could feel her knees getting weaker, so he dropped to the floor with her. They both cried until they couldn't cry anymore. It had been years since the last time Sheldon had cried because he had purposely held it all in so as not to seem weak. This situation was an exception though. He didn't care how weak he seemed. He only cared about making Jenny feel like she wasn't alone, and that there was someone there for her. They didn't know what the future would bring, but they both decided to put forth every ounce, every single drop of their efforts to endure it all.

The End.

* * *

**So that's the end of that story. I hope you all enjoyed it. Please tell me what you think of it. I'll be reuploading the sequel as soon as it is finished.**

**Edit: I forgot to update this. I posted the sequel to this story a long time ago now. It's titled Mlaatr: Maverick Hunter X.**


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